My name is Bernita Bradley and I'm a mother of two and a grandmother of one. I live in Detroit. I am 48 years old and I am a passionate lover of humanity. In Detroit, we have to have people who fight. We have to have people who fight for what's right. We have to have values and principles set for our kids, because if not, then they, you know, they're going to fall by the wayside. I was suicidal and I wanted to die. I attempted suicide, but wasn't successful and the only thing they brought me back was I kept thinking about my niece, Hadashah who was born when I was 14. She was like my joy for life back then and just watching her as a baby and I felt like I needed to be her protector and she was my reason for living at 14. I chose to live just specifically to be around her. At 21, I got pregnant with this son of mine Carlos, and was so happy and he became my reason to love living. 

It feels like I'm giving back something that I had as a kid because I remember that my mother, my mother was always the one who, you would see her walking up the street with 15 kids. She was taking them to some type of free swimming, we didn't have money, so she was taking us to go swim for free or to the Cobo Hall for the Christmas program for free. So she was making us see things outside of the four corners of our community, you know, the four walls of our community. 

The future feels real promising just to know that our stories are going to be out there for our kids to hear and for other people to hear the challenges that Detroit has faced, and to hear that there were people who were willing to face those challenges, I think it’s going to help other people.