Ozzie Cross and Kimberly Cross Spears

00:01 My name is Raziel cross. I'm 78 years old. Today's date is January 25th. 2020 location is Chicago, Illinois.

00:15 My interview partner is my lovely daughter Kimberly cross.

00:35 My name is Kimberly cross Spears. I am 52 years old and today's date is January 25th 2020 and we are in Chicago, Illinois. The name of my interview partner is my lovely mother Ozzy cross.

00:56 I have a few questions for you today. I want to make sure I get these questions and answers on tape because I want to always have a memory of you.

01:08 Who has been the biggest influence on your life? And what lessons did that person teach you? Well, I wouldn't say it's a person but it's really my church my church teaching it is help me to keep on looking forward it taught me. That spirit is eternal and if I get lonely, I'm only lonely for the Christ.

01:34 I can get into God's word and peace is mine.

01:41 Has been the kindest to you and your life my daughter Kimberly Anita cross often say. Only allowed one child to come through me. However, she is like having ten children. She's just that fantastic.

02:00 The most important lesson I have learned.

02:04 In my life that no one can hurt you. They can only give you a blessing.

02:12 When obstacles fall ahead of you you have a choice to do a go around it above it or go through it and get the blessing.

02:25 What is your earliest memory?

02:29 Oh some of my early early memories. I think I can think of three that stands out most most to me. I remember once riding in the back of my father's truck and we all decide to take off my shoes.

02:43 And instead of me taking off my shoes. I kick my shoes and they went out of the truck and my mother and father doctor truck and they had to look for my shoes shoe and they never found it and I can say what that taught me is don't be anxious take your time and patience is a virtue. Another memory is a happy one that I grew up in the 50s.

03:14 And going out to a restaurant with limited.

03:17 I can remember when we were visiting my grandmother. My father would always stop at this particular place in Greenwood and he would go and buy us fish and we would love that and we would always put mustard on a fish and another important memory is when we moved into our house. We left Riverton and we went to the Brickyard in Clarksdale. And this was so unusual cuz my father was a Timmerman and he had Lumber and he built us this nice house on the corner and we could have had a real huge house, but that was my mother's level of Consciousness at that time. She could think about you wanted a small kitchen. She wanted three bedrooms a bathroom and living room and the dining room, but that's that's okay. We love that cuz we had plenty of space to play and we had a blue bathroom.

04:15 What are you most proud of?

04:21 I'm most proud of.

04:24 The accomplishments that I have made in my life, you know, I would I was able to raise my daughter my husband, you know hit my husband made his transition when you were like 16 and from then on, you know, I had to make sure that you got your finish your high school education and you went to college and I was so proud of the accomplishments you've made and I was also happy about the competition and I made because in spite of all of that I was still able to go to school and get my BSN in nursing. I later got my masters in nursing and I was able to, you know, have a nice job so I could take care of you and help you with your endeavors. So I was really proud of that.

05:15 Speaking of me. What is your earliest memory of me? Oh, my oldest member memories of you is you kicking in my abdomen when you were when you was in Europe. I remember the beautiful birth. You came so quickly.

05:33 Would Holly no discomfort? I was in the doctor's office at 12 having an ultrasound.

05:40 My father-in-law pick me up took me back to my mother-in-law's house because I stayed with him cuz my husband had to go to work and then I ate some ice cream and then I went into the bathroom and I saw the bloody show and that's all mother we going to have to go to the hospital. I see the bloody show and so then mother said mother got so nervous. She ran across the street and she said the Logan would you take us to the hospital? I think I just getting ready to have the baby and then the slogan he was older man, and he was so nervous. And while we were in the car my water broke, that's my water broke and then they really got nervous and then when we got to the hospital, we went to Michael Reese hospital that hospital is torn down there and mother went in there and ask for a wheelchair, but they didn't have one so they can she walk so I walked in

06:31 And then when I know anything I had a beautiful baby girl.

06:40 Yes, that was you.

06:43 So now I have a different type of question when in life have you felt most alone? I can say I feel most alone when my husband had a boating accident and he drowned and I feel like a part of me had been gone at that time.

07:03 If you could hold onto one memory from your life forever, what would that be?

07:10 You know Kim, can I think about that because of it? I have so many beautiful memories, but just one that would hold onto can you just go to the next question right now? Okay, how has your life been different than what you'd imagine?

07:26 You know what? My life is almost been just like I imagine because I remember when I was a girl coming up I used to say I want to be a missionary and everybody used to laugh at me. You want to be a missionary? Yes. I want to be a missionary and then what would happen? I became an RN and I was still able to help people. So I figured that was one of the things that they took the place of that which was I like that

07:56 How would you like to be remembered?

07:58 I would like to be remembered as the person as far as my family is concerned. I was the one that they used to always go to when they had a medical problem. I saw the like that and I ran I have sisters now who have who needs me and I go and help them. I like being able to help them and I liked it in my service. And as far as my church, I like to be remembered as helping out with the Ambassador for love and what we do there. We make sure that everybody get an Easter lily everybody get a card if they are. Is there a sick and also we were the number to make Christmas time and I also like being The Treasure of my November birth club and I like, you know, I like doing that.

08:45 Do you have any regrets? No, I can truly say I don't have any regrets in that amazing. That's awesome. What does the future hold for you? I can see the future holds holds for me something very very positive. I look at.

09:05 All the great future ahead of me, even though I'm 78 years old. I'm looking forward to traveling cuz I love going to Mississippi to a summer home have a sister that lives there and we just enjoyed shopping and I'm also looking forward to traveling we were going to go to Australia this year, but we haven't we changed my mind since they were having a lot of calamities down there and I enjoyed you don't have a timeshare and I love going to different places that helps me to go to different places cuz I want to get, you know, utilize my timeshare.

09:43 If there was be one last conversation.

09:48 Between you and me. Is there something that you haven't told me yet that you want me to know?

09:56 Which produces did Apple watch?

10:02 You know what that I haven't told you, but I would like to tell you some things that I do I think about you I want I want you to know.

10:13 That I love you very much and I'm very very proud of you. And I'm so happy because you've done all the things I wanted you to do. I encourage you to go to school you went to school. You got your you got your BS and you was able to go get your Master's and you had a lovely a job that you were on for 30 years and I was so proud of you that you made your 30 years and I just want to tell you that Keep On Keepin On remember your teachers that I told you keep your friends and your family and most of all keep your lovely husband and I think you made a wonderful choice and

10:58 ABC what else? Would I like to let you know?

11:03 Well, maybe I'll think of something a little later.

11:07 Thank you.

11:10 Do you remember what was going through your head when you first saw me?

11:15 Oh me when I first saw you I was so happy and I said what I have to do, I think she's the most beautiful in the sweetest little girl that I have ever seen and I thought I got to make sure I bond with her so I was trying to catch your eyes so I could bond with you.

11:34 How did you choose my name? How did you come up with Kimberly will you know during the time when you were born which was in the sixties? Kimberly was a very popular name and I but I'll do I look in the books and I was trying to you know Santa name for you, but I just Kimberly just stood out to me and that was your name Kimberly and what about Anita? And I needed to I think I had to find you a middle name. I think I found it in the book. It didn't have any nobody in our family. I had a Anita but I just shows that.

12:08 So what was I like as a baby and a child?

12:11 O Kimberly you were such a curious and young girl, you know, basically I'm kind of shy but whenever I would take you to a restaurant you would eat your food and soon as you would finish your food, you would get down off the chair wherever you were sitting and go and visit everybody in the restaurant and I will send all my God. What is this tab? Do it and I will just have to follow you up cuz you had to go and greet everybody. So that was one of the things and you will always act if you always liked it. You were a brownie you was a girl scout you were in place you was in an in my husband and that we had to go to this the school function this school function. You always wanted to be in every little thing and which was very positive and I think that's what helped you to be the wonderful young lady that you are today.

13:05 What were the hardest moments you had when I was growing up and I'm curious about this cuz I have my own ideas and I almost

13:16 Don't like to say it too much. But the hardest thing was when I was going to RN school.

13:23 And my husband had to go to work and I had to go to work and that I had to be in the hospital at 7:30 and your bus had to pick you up and doing that time. I don't know where it was the hardest thing cuz I want I didn't want you to miss your bus and I wanted to get to my

13:43 Do you know the hospital setting is 7:30? So that was one of the most challenging things that I can remember but the good news is you have mr. Montgomery to help out. Yes, I did.

13:57 What are your dreams for me?

13:59 Okay right now.

14:03 Do you want to be president? Well, I know you so curious, you know you made 30 years on your job and you there young cuz you want you're not old enough to get your retirement. So I know you want to do something else in life and you have so many beautiful ideas and you such a you can plan things out I want for you what you want what you can find for yourself something that's challenging. I know you love your deltas and you're busy working with him now, but I want you to find a profession that you can have a passion for so you can show your talents cuz they are many so I'm sure you're going to find that so we're looking forward to that.

14:51 Did you have a nickname for me?

14:54 Well, I used to call you poo pot. And I think I still do you still do and how did you come up with that? I don't know to me. That's like a little sweet name.

15:12 I want to talk a little bit about you as a student. What kind of student were you? Oh, I was a person who really love to study. I always thought I would make great grades. I had bubbles between i c i a t minus student and I will and I studied hard even if I had to go line-by-line. I remember when I was in nursing school my girlfriend we wanted to make sure we met days so we went out line every sentence and make a question out of it to make sure we made AIDS and we graduated with honors and I don't know, you know, when you get a little older going back to school. You have to learn a little differently. You can't learn like maybe you can and everything is so we would that's what we did to make sure that we had good grades. And then when I graduate from high school, I was salutatorian and even in college, you know, I made the honor roll since I was a pretty good student.

16:09 This is so did you enjoy school? I love school because that's that's something that I don't know how you would put it but it validated me. If you know it makes you feel like you're worthy. So I think that helped me with a lot of confidence, especially when you make good grades.

16:34 Think about your life

16:37 When you were growing up during that time when you would be coming when you're educating yourself, did you feel?

16:45 That you were like, you said you felt like it validated you but did you feel like it would make you have direction and you you were accomplishing goals if you don't because that means the profession that I chose which was nursing and you know, a lot of people may not want to be a nurse but I found that being a nurse it was it was it was really beneficial to me because I was at work when I worked it was such a wonderful job. They even sent me back to school to get my BSN. And even after I got my BSN, they send me back to get my Master's and I can still work and take care of you cuz I went to school 16 years of not married life student increments, but I but I did it.

17:37 So you're a good poster person for they said that it can be done to keep on pushing.

17:46 So let's talk a little bit about daddy.

17:48 Oh, how did you meet? Oh.

17:52 Well, I met your father in high school and I'll let you know. I just saw him, you know, he would always take up with me because I was always the secretary in the class and him and his buddy was always and you know, everybody gets on the secretary because for some reason I think we kept the record for the money and everybody, you know, they was paying for the ring and all like that and you know, for some reason he protected me so he played football and I was a cheerleader. So one night after the game, I went out on the field and I picked him and I walked into the school and then I was out there. You know how the girls wait for the guys to come out and so he sent a message tell Isaac cross to wait for me and you know, I just that was fine and he took me home because he always had a car and the next day.

18:44 I was outside with my mother would you believe is out there hanging out clothes? Cuz that's what we did in the South and he come up with his car. So what is he doing here? And he has a man ever since so when did he propose?

19:03 What do in the process of the dating process cuz we did date we went to the movies and then you know his mother and father they lived in them. They live in Chicago, but I lived in Mississippi and he went to school in Mississippi with his uncle's so he would every summer he would come and be with his mother and father. So when I came up here to be with my aunt and everything, he would come take me out and we would date and any proposed but he had already had proposed to me and I wasn't quite ready after no, I'm not quite ready. So is this a Mississippi or in Chicago? So he went on and bought a new car?

19:42 So after all well, that's fine. He bought a new car but then he got called into service two weeks after that and he said oh my goodness. So then he he proposed and then I don't know. What is Paris like it or not, but he didn't want me to get away. So that's what he did.

20:00 And we got married two weeks. We got mad when he proposed to cancel it before they cuz we got married two weeks before we went in service. Okay. When was my Mars, March 3rd 1963?

20:18 Okay.

20:21 How many years were you married when I was married 28 years before he made his transition. So what do you think about marriage marriage recommended? I sure do. I think everybody need a partner, you know, you know, you need somebody that you can talk to and discuss things but it is amazing that I never remarried though, and it's something that why I think I know what it was. I met a lot of guys I dated cuz I was only 42 when he passed away.

21:00 But he left us in such a pretty good Financial State. So I see you know, I don't want to just marry anybody out there because you know, I have enough to take care of my daughter, you know, and and we did that time, you know, you know, we didn't miss a beat you wait to go able to go to college and and you traveled and so for some reason I don't know what that was selfish or not, but I didn't choose to get remarried. So let's say you met some nice.

21:28 Gentleman, would you marry again now?

21:32 I don't think so.

21:41 What? Excuse me? What's the what's your favorite memory of being married to Daddy?

21:49 Oh your father love to travel.

21:54 And he kept us abreast. He'd he made sure I thought we were going to go to All 48 states if he hadn't made his transition and I just said that was one one of the things that you know that he and he was always very curious because even the time when he made his transition that's when the computers was coming out and I wasn't Holly Anderson no computers. He knew he hit got books and everything. He was reading up on that. He was such a a guy who seemed like he had been here before he was before its time. I think.

22:29 Okay, so with that zip in so in your religious Pursuit

22:42 In your religious Pursuit

22:46 Have you received a miracle before?

22:51 I think I have I really had one very recently and I think you remember, you know, I was diagnosed as having for ulcers in my stomach. So I prayed and I prayed and I I did what the doctor told me to do. But when I went back in for my scope I had no ulcers you could only see a little leave a little scar tissue and everything was healed and I prayed several other times when I went when I've had some kind of medical condition and when I went back to the doctor they were gone. So I think I've had several miracles.

23:28 You know medically.

23:31 So when you meet God, what do you want to say to him?

23:36 I want to say

23:38 The thank you. Thank you for your son for allowing him to come to Earth. It was Jesus. That's what I believed and that he

23:49 He hate hate leads to he was on this Earth for so many years and he taught teaching that all of us could learn and then when he was he was he died and he was deeply in the school so bad and the third day he rose from the dead and he did that for us and the end that was he died for us and that was our salvation and that's what I believe and that I want I want to thank him for that and also,

24:20 Thank him for helping me to be able to to know the importance of prayer and I right now. I have a letter on top of my refrigerator. Don't forget to pray and then let me move everyday with him and to include him in my life and I hope that's that's what I've done.

24:40 I don't know what I answered that correctly you did.

24:46 What is your best memory of your mother?

24:51 The best memory of my mother is her delicious cooking.

24:57 My mother was such a great great cook until when she passed away. All I wanted to find was the pot that used to cook the pork steaks in that was that was that was her and I liked it because in my mother was so immaculate. It should be kept in Immaculate house and I love that in her and I tried to I tried to do that too, but I may not be successful as she was and I love the idea that she used to love to garden and I like to Garden also in my sister's we also like to do that and I Love The Way She Loved flowers and I like flowers also,

25:39 And I think my mother was shot too. But she tried to raise us, you know to be do the best we could do she wanted us to encourage us to go to church. She can go to church with us every Sunday. You don't like a lot of mothers with but you make sure that we will go and she make sure that we went to school and she she taught us the importance of Education.

26:03 So do you have any?

26:08 Early memories of your mom

26:11 Like when you first when you recognize this is my mother to remember that.

26:18 And that's a question Embassy did do I remember this is my mom. Let me see. I knew that from 1 2 3 4 5 6 7, you know coming on up, you know, and I knew that things we used to do together. We still going shopping together.

26:38 We worked in the garden together.

26:43 And we cooked together we clean together.

26:48 And things like that.

26:51 And I'm in and I know it was my mother. So with that did you enjoy having sisters and brothers and sisters and brother have three and one brother and I love it. I guess you can set even right now. I talked to my sister's two and three times a day. I may not talk to my brother but like once a week, but I talked to him at least twice because we have a Bible study and we all on the Bible study together, but I I talk to my sisters and if we haven't touch base, I haven't talked to you today and we realize that's so important because when we do this when we do decide to make that transition, we won't be able to talk to each other anymore. Even though I said life is eternal which is true. You may feel they Spirit but they won't be here in a body.

27:37 So we try to enjoy every day to have more kids. Yes. I did, but we've been there the perfect number.

27:47 If I could have had two would have been I would have been would have been great. You would have loved having a brother with you. We are like my siblings and I have wonderful friends. You should do what I'm so proud. I'm glad you have those two.

28:06 So a couple other questions I have for you.

28:10 Is there anything you've ever wanted to ask me and you've never asked me?

28:14 Have I been a good mother awesome mother and I can truly say that my self-confidence my love for myself.

28:32 The Haves and aspirations is because of the wonderful characteristics. I think you've instilled in me to teach me to have confidence to be my own Advocate to speak up for myself to to go for further to have dreams and things of that nature. So absolutely better awesome mother. Thank you Kim. Thank you so much. And I mean it to John.

28:58 That I definitely credit you for helping with me with my self-confidence because I've always loved myself and always felt Proud to be an African American woman.

29:15 Everyday, I never wanted to be anything other than who I am.

29:20 I'm so glad that I did to you and my father.

29:23 About of that well

29:29 Coming to the interview and leading up to it and preparing for it and just thinking about

29:39 The things you want to ask your parent your mother, you know before they leave this earth, you know course now you made me leave the Earth before them, but wanted to get some information recorded and something you can have as a Keepsake, so you can always go back and hear the hear the person's voice some more importantly, I guess. This is really not a question. I just want you to know that I love you and thank you so much, and I love you, too.