Category Archives: Relationships

events, Relationships, Society, What's Up

Doria Ragland aka Meghan Markle’s Mom, Quits Job in Los Angeles Just Days Before the Wedding

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Meghan and her mother are very close. In this photo, taken in September, the two were at the Invictus Games

*H-e-l-l-o. Her daughter is getting ready to marry a prince, is it really any surprise Doria Ragland has seen fit to quit her job…now?

Last August Meghan talked to Glamour magazine and described her mom, a social worker and yoga instructor, as a “free spirit!”

“…My mom has always been a free spirit. She’s got dreadlocks and a nose ring. She just ran the LA marathon,” the former Suits actress who will tie the knot with her beloved Prince Harry as the world watches this weekend, said.

According to what a source close to Meghan’s mom told Us Weekly, Ragland, who works with the geriatric community, has been planning to leave her current job for a while now.

“Doria is no longer working at the mental health clinic in the Los Angeles area. It was Doria’s decision to leave.” She has talked about starting her own private practice, focusing on working with elderly patients.” Continue reading →

events, Hollywood, Relationships, Society, What's Up

‘Katy and Jennifer’: Lounge Theatre Presents World Premier

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Donna Simone Johnson is “Katy.” Photo courtesy of KADM Productions

*Two women nearing their fortieth birthdays marshal their emotional resources built on their decades-long friendship to help them survive their respective devastating tragedies (a dead child, an abandoning husband) in their lives.

Can they endure? Continue reading →

Are You Serious?, Relationships, Society, Straight No Chaser, What's Up

Birmingham Photographer Captures Breathtaking Photo Series of ‘Chocolate Mamas’ Nursing their Babies

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Photo by Lakisha Cotill, H&C, Inc.

*In a unique and beautiful display of Black motherhood, a photo series showcasing mothers breastfeeding their babies aims to raise awareness and support for women of color who nurse their babies. It may be hard to believe, but there is still a societal stigma behind a woman breastfeeding her infant in a public place such as a restaurant. 

The idea came from Angela Warren, a mother and member of the Facebook group Chocolate Milk Mommies of Birmingham. Warren staged women in a variety of outdoor environments, nursing their babies and local photographer and founder of the nonprofit H&C, Inc. Lakisha Cohill captured the women in the photos we see.

In an interview with POPSUGAR, Warren said…

“Being a part of this movement has been life-changing. I didn’t breastfeed due to lack of knowledge and support. These amazing women have convinced me why it’s so important to nurse your children naturally and have created a community specifically to give knowledge and support to moms who breastfeed,” Cohill said. “Each of these women represents a [rewritten] chapter of the story of our history. For as long as I can remember, women (particularly women of color) have been given a script on what they should or shouldn’t be doing, so we decided to drop the original script and create our stories based off who we are [and] not who we’re told to be.”  

According to POPSUGAR, the group’s end goal is to normalize breastfeeding and make a woman’s choice to decide how she feeds her baby a bigger part of the conversation. Continue reading →

Are You Serious?, Naughty, Relationships, Society, Straight No Chaser, What's Up

Estranged Father of South African-Canadian Entrepreneur Elon Musk Said Impregnating Step-daughter Was ‘God’s Plan’

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Errol Musk (L) and son Elon (R)

*The spotlight is on South African billionaire businessman Elon Musk today. Not that he did anything, but as someone rolling in dough, anything that happens with a member of his less famous parent — in this case — has tongues wagging today as news surfaces about his estranged dad; who has fathered a child with his stepdaughter. But that wasn’t so much the news, as was his dad’s reasoning about it. Musk referred to the abhorrent act as, “God’s Plan.”

Can’t you just envision this God right now? Shaking his head and saying, ‘Please take my name out of your mouth on this one.”  

Errol Musk, 72, was married to Heidi, the mother of Jana Bezuidenhout, for 18 years prior to divorcing. The couple also had two children together.

Jana was only four when the couple united. But for some ungodly reason (pun intended), Musk told  The Sunday Times of London he never considered Jana to be his stepdaughter. 

See, this is the kind of thinking that makes it so hard not to judge.

The father and, er, “stepdaughter” reconnected when he helped her get over a breakup.

Lawd have mercy. My mind (and judgments) are all over the place with that one.

I can only imagine her reaching out to “Dad,” as daughters do, and him taking advantage of the situation. I’m sorry, but that’s what it sounds like to me.

But let’s get to this “God’s Plan” belief. Continue reading →

Are You Serious?, Relationships, Society, What's Up

‘Good Samaritan’ Takes In Stranded New Dad and Infant After Frontier Airlines Wouldn’t Let Them Board

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Rubin Swift and 4-day-old daughter, Ru-Andria

*Imagine you were just awarded custody of your infant daughter, but when you take her to the airport to fly her home the airlines says you can’t take her on board.

This is what happened to new dad Rubin Swift, who flew from Ohio to Phoenix to get his baby daughter after he won custody. Swift claims he had made arrangements with the airlines — who say they have a policy that a child must be older than seven days to fly. He even made sure to have the infants birth certificate and a note from her pediatrician, clearing her to fly. But when he arrived at the gate, none of that mattered to the agents.

To make even bad matters worse, he couldn’t get an immediate refund and had no funds to rent a room in a hotel or even a car.

Thankfully, this was not a problem for long.

The kindness of one stranger changed everything. Continue reading →

Are You Serious?, Health, Medical, Relationships, Society, Straight No Chaser, What's Up

Dad Fears He May Lose His Penis Due to Rare Form of Cancer, But Says He Plans to Marry Anyway

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*This has got to be one of the saddest stories I have ever heard. After Dale Clarke initially found a lump the size of a piece of rice on his penis — and then it grew to the size of a grape within three weeks, forcing doctors to remove a part of it, he fears the worst. 

He may lose his entire penis,

Stricken with a rare form of terminal cancer, Clarke, the father of a 6-year-old boy, and another child on the way, has already lost all sensation in his manhood and during the past seven months has had five operations, nine rounds of radiotherapy and two rounds of chemo.

Still, the tumors keep coming back.

Fox News reports he has been left with a gaping wound at the top of his groin, and has had skin taken from his thigh grafted on to his penis. 

Clarke, who lives in the UK, says the situation has “absolutely destroyed me,” and warns other men to see a doctor right away if they sense something is wrong down there.

He is certainly being extremely brave, speaking so openly about his situation. I believe we would all agree that many men would not. Continue reading →

Are You Serious?, Crime, Naughty, Relationships, Society, Straight No Chaser, We Remember, What's Up

Little Girl, 4, Fakes Sleep As Dad Kills Mom, Brother and Himself

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*The insightful thinking of a 4-tear-old girl is the reason she is alive today. After hearing a gunshot she ran into the living room of the home she shared with her mom and half- brother, to find her mother lying on the floor, and her dad holding a gun.

The dad ordered her to go back to her room. She did, and faked sleep when he went to check on her.

“She heard several shots fired after that,” said  Bellefontaine Neighbors Police Chief Jeremy Ihler.

Then he went back and shot the 15-year-old son who entered the room, and finally, himself.

Police in Bellefontaine Neighbors, Missouri, a St. Louis suburb, had been called via 911 by a man they believe was the shooter.  The man said police would find three bodies, and then he hung up, according to reports by local TV station KSDK, St. Louis Patch and the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Continue reading →

Are You Serious?, Crime, Naughty, Relationships, Society, Straight No Chaser, What's Up

Chicago DCFS Worker Dies After Being Beaten While on Duty (Listen)

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*It appears the only thing more dangerous than being Black in America is being an employee at the Department of Children and Family Services. You have to show up in usually volatile situations and take children out of harm’s way — usually against the wishes of those who may be doing the harm. On September 29 of last year, 59-year-old Pamela Knight, an employee at the DCFS office in Sterling, Illinois, was attacked as she attempted to take a 2-year-old into protective custody.

Today she died as a result of her injuries.

The Dixon resident had been in a coma  at a Chicago rehab facility, according to a loving tribute by her union after the attack. Her death was confirmed by officials from DCFS and the Cook County Medical Examiner’s office.

Angela Sucher, the mother of Andrew Sucher, 25, placed two 911 calls (Scroll down to listen) alerting the authorities that her son had injured the worker, who she said was laying on the ground with injuries to her face. Continue reading →