She was just a woman. She was an independent spirit who didn't believe a man was better than a woman and vice versa, and sometimes she and my father would fight. It was before I was born. They had had several by the time I came along. My father didn't beat my mother. They would fight. She would defend herself. You know what I mean? All my sisters are like that. Nobody beats them. They might. I mean, he might get a lick or two, but she takes something and knock him in the head, you know like that, and so there was contention. We didn't have a peaceful -- I mean, it was -- sometimes it was chaos, but mama was a lady. She knew that she was a beautiful woman, but it didn't mean anything to her in that she didn't use it for anything. She used to say, "Pretty is as pretty does. " She was a moral -- she had morals and she was a principled woman. She loved her mother and her mother was like that. She believed in justice and what was fair and so she didn't need any money. My father was more -- he was -- he liked street life. His father killed two men. I think he was trying to live up to that image and mama said one time he was washing cars for the police and he stole a gun out of one of the police cars and it really frightened her and that was, I think, what was between them, the contention, because she wanted to live a spiritual life. She wanted to find her spirituality and dad said, "There is no God," but he acted like he was God. He built everything, made everything, and everybody was scared of him.