Stories

“I was born and raised in the West End, off 36th & Market. My experience in the West was good. I got 8 brothers and sisters. My father’s a hard worker. My mom died when I was 15. She had breast cancer. My father was a parks worker. He would cut …

“I was born and raised in the West End, off 36th & Market. My experience in the West was good. I got 8 brothers and sisters. My father’s a hard worker. My mom died when I was 15. She had breast cancer. My father was a parks worker. He would cut the grass and stuff. He would be at all of the parks throughout the city. He did the damn thing and I’m proud of him. He just had a stroke a few days ago. We’re so used to him being the backbone and with that, everything is breaking down. I really feel bad.

The West End needs more people, like back in the day. We need more concerned people. We need more activities and community centers. We used to have the Galleria. We were able to take a Pepsi can to Kentucky Kingdom and get in for free. We used to have block parties. We need more people to guide the youth and take some time to get to know them. Let the kids get out. Nowadays, it’s all about video games and telephones. We need more people to be active and caring. The community needs a lot. Knock on the door and ask an elderly person if they need something from the store or do they need their grass cut.

 Some people just asked me if I regret writing the book. I don’t regret it but I regret what my father’s going through because his heart hurts for me. I never wanted that for my father. People asked me why I did it and I honestly did it to make it better for my family. I was the provider. I told God that if I write this book, I would obliged what he’s asking me to do, and that was to stop escorting. I was the kingpin of escorting. I was putting everybody on top. Was I eating off of them? No, I was breaded. I just wanted to make people’s lives better but I feel like I made it worse. 

It’s been rough. Everybody in the family can’t be around the kids. I can’t be around my grandkids. I can’t even talk to them. It’s not fair. My intentions were never to hurt anyone. It was never personal between me and Rick. I don’t know Rick but what I said to Rick was that we’re the same people. The only difference is that he’s got a lot more money and we come from two different sides of the track. Our spoons are still silver. His may be a $1 million spoon and mine might come from Walmart. 

I never meant to hurt anyone. I saw the ins and outs with the players. I saw all of the that. I seen the players breaking down because they were dismissed for smoking weed or something like that. I saw all of that. I never meant to hurt anybody. I just wanted my family to be better. 

God told me that I’m going to go through 40 days and 40 nights, but I have to trust in him. Let him guide me. He’s going to create a path for me. I need to believe in him, not other people. He’ll guide me and it’ll be okay. See, things don’t always come in money. For me, I lost my whole family and all of my friends. I lost everything because everyone thought that I was going to come into millions and I didn’t. I can still hold my head up, thought. I had lawyers tell me that I did what nobody else has done. I just had to hold my head up and keep pushing. 

I’m a hustler to my heart because that’s where I came from. That’s just what it is. Do I hurt people? No, I try to humble myself. If I got it, I give it to people. I still get smacked every now and then. It’s just another band aid that God’s got for me. Keep it pushing and it’ll heal.

Stand in your truth and stay true to your heart. Strive for whatever it is that you want and push forward. There’s so many road blocks and obstacles but that’s just what they are. We will get through them and get over them. If there was never any obstacles in life, there will be nothing to get over. You have to go through obstacles in life. It’ll be okay. Stand in your truth. If it’s true, you stand by it 100%. That’s what my father would tell me.” - Katina, Park DuValle