What is it, Miss Marie,
that you're holding
between you and your mom?
I never understood--
Look at her.
Why I was the only child that
always got slapped in the face.
I questioned-- I questioned,
like, if anybody would ever
genuinely be there
for me if I don't
even have my own mom there.
I never knew I
hurt you like that.
None of them ever
got hit in the face.
And it made me
feel like there was
a problem with the
relationship that we had.
Like, it wasn't strong enough,
and I never understood,
like, why did I get
treated that way?
Like, when they got
in trouble, they
never got slapped
in the face, so what
made me different from them?
I never understood it,
and it always bothered me.
Did that ever dawn on you?
No, ma'am.
Because if I'm saying
something to her,
and she's coming back at me,
I guess it just ticked me off.
Felt disrespectful to you?
Yes, ma'am.
Let me share something
with you that I know.
A slap in the face is the
ultimate act of humiliation,
because your face is how
you show up in the world.
It's who you are.
So when someone slaps your
face, what they're saying is,
I am degrading you.
I am diminishing you.
I am humiliating you.
I never meant to
do that to you.
And I am really sorry.
Mama loves you.
I love you too.
I wouldn't ever do
anything to hurt you.
I didn't know.
You should have told me.
Well, at the time I
felt like you didn't want
to talk about it,
so-- and it was like,
I felt like I-- we
couldn't talk about it.
I mean, I just had to accept
it because you were my mom, so
what could I do as a child?
Mama's sorry.
This is your mama.
You're only gonna have one.
And she didn't do it all right.
And she probably
hurt you very deeply.
But she's here today.
