Audio File
Transcript
My name is Israel Higgins. I’m 16 years.
My name is Adam Keene, I am 23 years old.
My name is Wesley Smith. I’m 16 years old.
My name is Shyheim banks. I’m 15 years old.
I interviewed…
I interviewed Pastor Tim Smith.
Pastor Tim Smith on June 26, 2012.
I was born May 5th, 1959. I am 53 years old. I feel as good as I felt when I was 30. I used to be a musician years ago, and I still like to teach music, and I love Hazelwood, love the work.
My life as a child was fun. I grew up, mom and dad, and my dad was a preacher. My mom was, you know, in the church and stuff. I was so poor, I thought I was rich. Every time I went to the refrigerator, there was food. So I was cool. You know, I did not know I was poor, man, until much later on. Probably just before I moved from the Hill District to Homewood. Then I started getting signs that we were poor, but prior to that, you know, I didn’t realize, even though I was living in an Insulbrick house, 2 bedroom house with five people in it that was sat up in the back on car jacks, and I used to play underneath the area where the car jacks held up the house.
My father was a pastor and he taught me pretty much everything I know and had a great influence on my theology, you know, and how I look at things. The reason why I became a pastor here was not necessarily because my dad wanted me to, because I know he wanted me to, but was because I saw that there was a need to fill the void that was here at the time, and I needed to fill that void my way. I needed to do it my way. So, the only reason why I’m a pastor is because I can be one my way.
What brought me to Hazelwood was my dad bought a church in Hazelwood and, you know, I was a member of his church. At the time he bought the church, I think I was 19, and then he went out and bought an organ. So I had to learn how to play the organ, you know. The church had a huge influence on me because the church…with my dad and-and I’d say more my dad than the church, because my father was a person who was on the ground, he was a foot soldier. He…he believed in touching people’s lives. He wasn’t stuck in the pulpit or stuck in his office. He was among people. And you would never know he was a pastor if you didn’t know.
I am executive director of a nonprofit called Center of Life. And Center of Life as a community empowerment organization and we focus our attention on music and arts education, athletics, and community partnerships.
Well, I was working for another nonprofit organization back in the 90s, and the church that I was going to was in Hazelwood, Keystone Church. And I was coming to Hazelwood, you know, every Sunday, and sometimes through the week, and I would meet the families and the kids. And I knew a lot of people in the community and-and I saw a lot of the struggles that the community was having, and I wanted to be able to address those things. I wanted to be able to see change in people’s lives. The reason why I do what I do now is also because of the significant relationships that I’ve built with people in Hazelwood, and the people in Hazelwood, you know, it’s just proof that you can’t judge a book by its cover. The things I heard about Hazelwood was not what I experienced when I started building relationships with people. When I started building relationships with folks, man, it was… It was just, you know, I fell in love with this community, you know, with the people in this community, the good, the bad and the ugly. So much so until when I got married, my wife and I, we moved here, we moved here, and we lived right here in this building for about 8 years. And I wasn’t- that was before Center of Life. That was before, you know, but we lived here, man. My kids went to Head Start here with the school. You know, the whole thing, man.
I was honored, I guess, to be in the room when my father passed away, and this was in 1997. And he got cancer. And you know, he got to the place where they-they really couldn’t do anything else for him and he didn’t want them to do anything else for him. So we were in the room, never forget, me and him, and he started breathing real, real faint. So, I was sitting at the bottom of the bed, and I just kind of grabbed onto his foot. And he just, he breathed his last breath, and I said “My father taught me how to live, and he taught me how to die.” He basically told the doctor, he said, “Look, I want you to give me anything else. No more operations, no more procedures. Just give me something so I don’t feel the pain.” And, and, and I was so proud of him, you know, because that was his decision. He didn’t want to be on life support and all that stuff. He just wanted to go when it was time to go.
I would say to keep track, whether it’s mental pictures or whether it’s a video camera or whether it’s a just a regular steel camera, keep track of the stuff of life, the stuff of your life, the things that you…that you love, the things that are around you because things do change over time. I say you get one day. All you have is today. Yesterday’s gone. There’s no such thing as tomorrow unless it comes. And today is what you have. Love your mothers and fathers. Or guardians or whatever, uncles, aunts, grandparents. Love your siblings. Experience this day. Because you will never see it again.