Tyondra Newton and Sally Nixon

Tyondra Newton and Sally Nixon

Interview transcript

SN: When was the last time you talked to your mom?

TN: Like a week before she passed away. I was just asking her when she was gonna stop lying to us and be honest.

SN: If you could tell her anything in the whole world, what would it be?

TN: That it was sad that we had to go through what we went through, but the things she did to us helped me learn so when I have children, I won’t use drugs and stuff.

SN: Do you want to have kids?

TN: Um, not right now. [Laughs]

SN: When—do you ever want kids?

TN: Well, I think about this a lot. In ten years, I just wanna have like this big ol’ thing like Michael Jackson has, you know, that Never Never Land where at-risk kids can come and have some place safe to stay because like when I was growing up, I didn’t think I was gonna live long the way my life was going already. I had thought I was gonna commit suicide or I was gonna get killed by getting beat or something like that.

SN: What are you afraid of?

TN: I’m afraid of dying before I prove that I’m somebody. A lot of my foster parents told me that I will be nothing, I will be just like my mom and things like that, but I know it’s gonna be different