Duck Call Room - Uncle Si Finds Out He Was Almost Phyllis’ Dad

Episode Date: August 27, 2026

Phil’s daughter Phyllis joins Uncle Si to tell the incredible story of how DNA research led her to the Robertson family. She reveals that Si was once on the list as her possible father, and her digging into the family tree ends up solving a Robertson mystery about Si’s mother that had lingered for generations. Phyllis looks back on meeting Phil for the first time and the healing that came from finally knowing the truth. Phyllis’ most Robertson traits are immediately obvious to John-David and Martin as they compare her mannerisms, personality, and blunt sense of humor to the rest of the family. Duck Call Room episode #582 is sponsored by: https://myphdweightloss.com - Find out how Godwin is losing weight! Visit the website or call 864-644-1900 and mention "Godwin" to get 2 weeks free in the program! https://duckstamp.com - Get your digital duck stamp online and keep it right on your phone! https://nutrafol.com - Get $10 off your first month’s subscription and free shipping when you use promo code DUCK! - Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

All right, welcome back to the duck call room, ladies and gentlemen. We are joined today by Ms. Phyllis. We said we were going to do this, and we did it. We finally made it happen. We made it happen. I do have to know something, though, before we get started. Just real quick, or we even get started. My man, Samuel, doesn't sign my spot while I was out of here.

We told him you'd be excited. Samuel. What in the world, man? Move it over a little bit. No, no, no. I'm actually for that now. All guests have to sign the table. Oh, yeah, we'll do it.

That'll be, yeah, that's kind of a bit. Should I put mine right here front and center? Put it wherever you want. Wherever you want, Phel. He's the coolest little dude. He was awesome. You're going to be hard to follow with his little hand-drawn bird here. Yeah.

Well, maybe I can get Tony to come over and, like, draw a for real beautiful wood duck. Oh, you're going to be here a while. Life-like. Big Tony, the artiste. Tony, unfortunately, this one don't pay well. So, well, if y'all didn't notice, we do have a guest today. I already introduced her. And she's been talking, so I hope you noticed.

I missed your introduction then. I said, we've got Phyllis with us today. It's worth a second introduction. Well, let's do it. It's a bigger introduction than most. There's people that probably don't even know who I am. I would suspect that if they watch this podcast or listen, they're well aware. You may not, though.

No, I think so. because the ones that follow us, what I found in public interactions, they've watched everything we've done. And for that, thank you, by the way. That is not a gripe. That's not making fun of you or anything, but y'all keep up with us and we appreciate it. So I know, you know, a little bit about Phyllis's story, but we're going to dive into a lot of it. So, you know, we're going to have some fun. Phyllis, I just got to know. Before we even, get into any part of the story when you stumbled across this crew first impression where you like yeah uh hmm there was a pause there was a pause yeah no no because see she's been you know sent off the day and a all that when all these different names

yours is hails and all this started coming out you know this young lady this is her story So, you know, you're going to let her tell it? Well, I said all that. That's not. Look, I love that. No, I'm kidding. I am so honored that he read my book. Like, I honestly, I wasn't quite sure.

Now, I know you read part of it so you could endorse it. But like the whole whole thing, like even after the fact, that's awesome. Absolutely. He loves two things. He read Betty White's too. Fox News and books. Okay. The main thing that's your book is, okay.

Me, you've got a connection. Oh, wow. My book that I wrote, okay, is my life through my stories. Yeah. That's semi-non-frey. Okay, and on yours, this is your life, what you wrote in that book. Mm-hmm. Okay, and it must have been, I look at it, you know, a child growing up going through puberty and everything,

all the crap that they had to put up with. Well, yours was, you know, quadruple that, okay, because nothing around you seemed right. You know, who are these weird people? They really, I don't relate with them. I don't look like them. I don't think like them. That must have been one hell of a thing to go through, seriously.

It was, it was. And I have siblings, and they're awesome. And they're the best of the best, my brother and sister. I call them my Missouri. But no, it was absolutely wild because I was like a weirdo. I was weird, which I mean, I'm still. No, no. Well, that just made you finally found your home.

Yeah. It's bad enough to have that thought. But then when you double your quadruple, it's talking about, oh, man, what happened to me? There was just a few things, and that's probably one of them. Did we actually need DNA when I came here and realized, okay, actually I'm fitting in pretty good? It was really weird because I'm like, well, that's why that looks like that. That's why I act like that. That's my mannerisms.

And that whole nature versus nurture thing. That's where I was going. You can't beat genetics, though. You can't. And it's some weird stuff that you wouldn't even think. So like we were sitting at my dad and Miss Kay's one evening, and we're just chit-chatting and doing that. And I'm sure y'all can recognize how this would have looked.

But suddenly, dad turned off the TV, got up and left the room. And Ms. Kay's going, well, good night, Phil. We were not watching the TV or anything, you know, really sarcastic. And Tony's like, how is that genetic? I did the same. I do the same thing, completely unaware. someone else is in the room, just get up, turn TV off. I'll turn lights off and just go about my business.

And Tony's like, hello, I was here. The self-centeredness. I guess that's what it is. That's what it is. Oh, that sounds terrible. Hey, when we get sick of it, hey, we do. Hey, we're gone. You can't say that.

Me and Martin can say that. No, I traveled the world with Willie Robertson. No, he's taking some accountability. He's taking some accountability right here. I really like that. He's turning over a new league. Calling a spade of spade here. Yeah.

This is nice. You got to come back. We ain't even through this. You've got to come back. We're tearing out the walls. We're going to sugarcoat this for you. You're wrong. You're going to get to full Robertson, you know, both barrels.

Well, I learned a lot about that from Gordon because he helped me write this book. And he would say, how, it's like I'm talking to Jan. And he said it a hundred times if he said it once. And he said, do you ever apologize? And I'm like, nope. Well, no, when you're never wrong, you don't have to apologize. No, look, I will say things like I apologize. Like, I just won't say I'm sorry.

Like, I have a problem. And that's a problem. And I'm aware. Actually, I got a question. John Wayne said best. Don't say that shows weakness. Oh, forget the apology. Forget the apology.

Does your apology come with a backhanded compliment? Because that's what these guys do. I'm sorry, but. Yeah. But it's still. I was shocked at how good you. What did he say last time? When you look at me, that's what you get.

He said, last time he said, I owe you an apology, Hunter was wrong. Right. And I'm like, wait, are you, that's not an apology. I always slip it. The words that come out of my mouth, you said, what you see is what you get.

There was a time when I was in my 20s that a lady from my church came over. We actually house parents had a children's home in Natchez, Mississippi at the time. And she sat me down and she said, Phyllis, I just felt like I needed to come and talk to you because you lack tact. She told me, she correct, she was saying,

I'm like, I like, what? And she's like, yeah, you don't have any tact. But it probably came right after they asked me to speak to the women's group, and I told them that they were, it was child abuse for them to feed their kids, ravioli out the can for supper. I said, that's child abuse.

So like, Oh, man, here he is a form of it. I was abused. And I'm not saying kids can't have ravioli out the can. I'm just saying, like, if that's what you're feeding your kids night after night because you won't get in there and, like, bake a biscuit, then you, that's child abuse.

Like, feed your kids something other than processed crap. That's what I was saying. But she said I lack tact. But this is the kind of stuff that when I found, y'all i'm like it all makes sense it all made sense that DNA runs yeah but what was the first thought when you looked at this bunch probably that she needed a duck stamp that's what i thought too and you know what today it's easier than ever you just head on over to duckstamp dot com why you're getting all your thing because you got out of that time of year you went duck cutting you know did you know about a duck stamp

when you first showed up here? I did not. You did not. But one of the first things you did, you went duck hunting with everybody, right? Absolutely. And you had to get all your stuff together and all your stuff includes a duck stamp.

I wore your waiters because they said you had the smallest feet, you and Jep. So they gave me your waiters. And I just remember stepping down into that gumbo mud and I tried to step back out and my foot slipped right out of that boot and it was like I had a broke ankle. I was flipping around in there.

But you didn't have to worry about losing you duck stamp because you got it at duckstamp. dot com. Right there on your phone. We did it. Hey, question. Can I get the same duck stamp at like for, because now we're in Missouri. Yeah.

That's federal duct stamp. Federal duck stamp available at duckstamp.com. It counts everywhere. Not your state one. And it saves onto your phone so you never have to carry it with. If you've always got your phone with you and you don't have to have service. So it's all good. Did you already have a conceived picture of your dad in your mind?

I really did not. And here's the cool thing. We were not like viewers. We were not fans of Duck Dynasty. because we were missionaries in Nicaragua, pretty much the whole time the show was on, we knew about it, but we never watched it. Oh, man, if you never got to see Side dubbed in Spanish,

you need to go look that up. Oh, that's so good time. That is hilarious. Yeah, if you get bored one night, that's a good one. All, everybody's working at the deer stuff, you know. I mean, I'm putting sacks of feet on my back and heading up in mountains. It's all because it's weight I've lost with Ph.D. You're moving and shaking now.

Stepping over log, big logs, that are going around them. Most weight loss plans have one thing in common. They quit working eventually, and when that happens, usually the weight comes right back. But Ph.D. weight loss is different. I'm 28 weeks in, and, man, I've lost over 40 pounds and still losing.

And it's just way different than any weight loss plan I've ever taken. It's the food's good, real good. The one thing is they want you to eat all the time, which I like, which I told my coach, I said, I thought I'm supposed to eat less to lose. weights. He said, well, your body's got to work with that metabolism. So they know what they're doing. And what worked for you before doesn't always work again because your body fights weight loss every step of the way when it's under stress. GLP1 drugs can work as a quick fix, but they don't

always take care of what's causing the problem in the first place. PhD weight loss works with you to develop a plan that works with your body and focuses on restoring your metabolism for good so that your body stops fighting you. The goal isn't to lose weight just once is to never have to start over again, y'all right now, call Ph.D. Weight Loss and mention, you'll get two free weeks in the program and they'll pay for your food. That's a $1,500 value, completely free. Call 864-644-1900 and say, Gowan. Again, that's 864-644-1-1900 or visit my PhDwate-loss.com. So the first real impression that I got of him is when we were doing all of this and we wrote

letters and I'm like, well, we need to deliver these letters to see if just kind of reach out. And I didn't want to mail one to his house because I knew, you know, Ms. Kay, I knew he was married. I didn't want to do that, right? So we drove down here. I had looked on the website doing some research and I saw that Jace will, and dad were going to do a New Year's Eve service at White's Ferry Road. So we drove down to go to that service and we walked in the church.

And the first impression that I got in my dad was him walking out and sharing the gospel and I'm like this is making perfect sense because my family my dad that I grew up with my mom they never took me to church but I went to church I found a way to go to church and so when and I've been serving God I got saved when I was nine years old and I've been serving God ever since and so when I see that's the weird part isn't it must have really just yeah when I saw him up there I'm like it just click click click click click just fell into place and here's what I believe you know when When he, he was born again while I was still, my mom was still pregnant with me. So he had, he had done the running around, got my mom pregnant.

He went back to Miss Kay and the boys. And so around, I think the summertime or so is when he was born again. And then I was born that year in October. So by the time I was born, and Jace pointed this out, dad was born again. And then I'm thinking he prayed for his family. He prayed for his kids. And he just didn't know that he was praying for a daughter 45 minutes down the road. That's why the book is so unique.

It really is. Y'all are on a parallel road, so to speak. And I look and God is the, what are they, chorographic? Choreographer. Yeah, choreographer. God has been planning all the, how this is going to work out. Yeah, perfect time. And here's the best part of all of it.

It heals both of you. absolutely it did he was a different person with me like yeah here's what i'll tell you about he was kind you would not have liked him that's what i've been told okay and i mean because phil robinson the old phil robinson that i ran with and made kate feel better but it didn't it didn't help wow so you were running around with him oh no see i've seen the worst of him i didn't realize that You actually, when you, when you meet your dad, you actually met the best Phil Robertson because you met, you met the man that had love in his heart for the human race. He did too.

Because before that, Phil Robertson didn't have a love in his heart for no one, including himself. Yeah. Carrying around. You know, he was totally out of it. and he was one of the probably right-hand devil demons of the devil. No, I'm serious. You met the best one, okay, because he cared about people because no one ever come to his house that he didn't feed.

No wonder if they need, whatever they needed, Phil and Kay gave it to him. And you know, they warned me saying he's not nurturing. Like Jason and Al, we're very much like be, like, be in my. Jason, all of his kids, they had a rough life. Phil was a rough, a rough man to be around, period. So even after he gave his heart to the Lord, he was still rough around the edges. No, no.

Yeah. He was just a hard man, okay? Who's the man? His motto was, who's the man? They called me fat. And, yo, I'll put it this way. Yo. I still don't know about it, though.

Phil Robertson didn't want anyone to see him be emotional or be caring. Mm-hmm. Okay, because the first 28 years of his life, he wasn't. And I think that goes back. I'm serious. When I say he didn't care about no one, he didn't care about it in himself. You think that's because of y'all's childhood? I don't know what caused that.

Because, like, Dad, Dad was a rough man. Ellis is a therapist to everyone. Yeah, I don't like we should. And Phil's too. older brothers, okay? Dr. Emily wouldn't therapist him, but it's family. They was just mean.

Yeah. And mental illness. Jimmy Frank and Harold, both of them. And I guess it was because dad was, you know, they was the two oldest son. So he was rough on him. Oof. You know, but Jimmy Frank's own son

says, hey, he's just a mean, blankly blank. Mm. Yeah. Did he hit y'all? And they was. Like, did they, did they, like hit y'all?

Well, no, like, you know, Mama had to step in between me and Harold one time. Okay, okay. Because Harold was a first lieutenant in the Air Force, and he'd come in from leave. Okay. I'm a 14-year-old punk. Neck.

Yeah. You know, and he said something to me, and I told him, I said, I'll do it yourself, punk. Oh. Well, hey, the first lieutenant come out in him, and I'm in charge of 360 million of you,

you all, And he was coming from him. You say you ain't in charge of me, though. I said, you ain't in charge of me. Get out of my face. And I'm serious. If bomb had stepped in, he'll hurt me bad. I mean, you know, because he was mad.

Wow. You were your mama's favorite. Yeah, but I'm still. And I get it. You were the baby. I met all y'all. Well, wait, were you the youngest or Jan? Jan was.

Yeah. Okay, okay. I was about say Jan given a run for his money. Yeah. That's the coolest part of the, This whole family story, baby boy, baby girl. Dan Robertson was the only person in this world that cared for Phil Robertson and just jumped on the whole family with both feet. Wow.

He said, that's your brother and you're not going to believe how many people he's going to bring Jesus. Yeah, that's a good one. Wow. prophetess. She saw it and I mean, it's come true. That's amazing. But I love the way God works, you know, when the

scripture says God works in mysterious ways. Oh, you have no idea. Yeah. Well, yeah, because he worked in a way that I mean, that's new. 23 in me. I don't know if that was the brand we used. Ancestry DNA. Yeah. So I have, I just got to go back to

You walked into that church. Did they know you were there? So is your heart just beating out of your chest? I almost couldn't get out the car. And I was just taking deep breaths. And I finally made my way into the sanctuary. And it was overwhelming. I started crying.

And I think the people around me thought I was just being moved by the Lord. But, I mean, I was in a sense. But I was just so emotional and nervous. Yeah. Because I had this letter also that I wanted to put in his hand. He came in. with like security and then as soon as he was done he hightailed it out he go he gone and now i know like that makes this but i had no idea then but here i am with this letter and tony's you know i'm like

what am i going to do with this and then but jace was still speaking and kind of closing up the service and all of that and uh and tony was telling me like go go give it to jace and i mean it took everything in me to stand up and put one foot in front of the other and walk down there but i finally did and put it in his hand. I said, would you give this to your dad? It's important to me. And so he said, oh, yeah, yeah. And he patted Tony on the shoulder.

It was like, where are y'all coming from and was super friendly? And apparently that's something that he never does. But like he was talking friendly and he went and put it in his bag and said, yeah, I'll give it to him. And the rest. Oh, he's like that at church, though. Is he good? Oh, and it's, adding his public speaking deal. I mean, Jason is great.

We make fun of him for. Okay, okay. If you're a good friend of him, he will just be like, but he's very, point blank. He's a weird dude, okay. I mean, he is. I named him, okay, so I don't want to win. No.

So Jace was like a sudden, do you know what, though? We were doing this DNA stuff, and we were looking at like, okay, I know who my great grandparents are and grandparents. You could tell just by genealogy without even doing a DNA test. you could just do research. And so by the time it was all said and done, like you were on the short list. So I almost had to call you daddy signs.

Well, here's the, here's the funny part of all this. Wow. When we all got together and they said, well, we've got an announcement to make. You know, Canfield said, we got an announcement back. And I was out. He said, we got a problem. John, I said, what do you mean? We got a problem.

problem. I said, well, we got a new addition to the family and we're trying to we've got it narrowed down to two people. Oh. Oh, wait, for real? Yeah, no. That was the problem. No, no. Yeah. It was a coin

flip. I hadn't heard this part of the story. That's why I said. No, no. He was almost daddy side. I don't know. So, Colsey, they asked you and they say, well, I said, well, we got a problem. This story just got way better. Yeah. And it was already great. So we got it down to two people.

I have not ever. I'm looking at me either. I'm saying, that's why I'm listening with a smile on my. I said, well, who's the two people? And I laughed and he says, it's down between you and Phil. And I said, well, I can help y'all out on this. I said, what are we talking about here? And they said, we're talking about a daughter.

Hunting season's coming. Every morning's the same thing, right? You forget something. You got to borrow something. You start doing this. Every that time I borrowed your waiters, my nuts still hurt. But you know what? You didn't get kicked in them by the game warden for not having you duck stamp

because this is available on your phone right now from our friends over at duckstamp.com. Never forget your duck stamp again. You can't borrow it anyway, so you might as well head over to duckstamp.com and download it straight to your phone. Doesn't even matter if you have service. If you've hunted long enough, you've probably borrowed just. about everything at one point or another. Shales, decoys, face paint, parowater's, doesn't matter, but you know what you can't borrow, the federal duck stamp. You got to have that one on your own and just head over to duckstamp.com and purchase your federal duck stamp online.

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So before opening morning, make one quick stop at duckstamp.com. That's duck stamp.com. But you know what else we uncovered? We uncovered that Granny Robertson had thought that she had a different daddy her whole life. And it was part of, I think, part of what was the story of mentalism. I never did get that sight. Well, here's the thing. There were never any Thurmans is what they thought the last name was.

There were no Thurman's in my ancestry, which means her daddy was her daddy, like not somebody who traveled in and traveled out. So she was a hail, I think, is what kind of comes down to. And it really was a Wild West over. Y'all are really the frontier to the Wild West, man. That's crazy. Well, no, no, because I... A lot more of your stories are making a lot more sense now that we have...

No, we got to be in the air. I'm saying, look, we're sitting on the ports in the summertime, you know. It's hot, you know. Old man comes in like a 1958, you know, Ford pickup truck loaded down with watermelts, you know. And, yo, he comes by and he's looking, driving, you know, he goes by. And Mama's looking too. And after he went by, Mama said, you know, she said, that old boy there liked him in y'all's daddy. You know, we're going like that.

Well, he's turned around and come back and pulled it in the yard. Y'all, and he's a big old red-headed fella, yo. What are you having to introduce you to somebody? What could have been? No, no, I'm talking about, hey, country all the way. Overall's no shirt on, yo. Oh, okay. Yes, y'all.

And tell me, Merritt, that's you, you know? And she said, Reds, what are you doing? Oh, there's been a red around here. Yeah. No, no, I'm serious. That must be genetic too. Old red. Old red.

Man. I don't know how to recover from that. I don't either. Moral of this story, I'm staying away from DNA to it. Well, that's why when Bella was asking me about, Mama, what was Merritt like? And I said, she was a hoot.

I said, Maul was a hoot. That's the one that. The price is right. Yes, and I've seen that. Have you seen that? Oh, yeah. That was super fun. And, you know, I might have actually seen that in real life because we, I watched them in the ground.

Daddy and Mama used to watch Bob Barker on television and argue the whole hour. That was a Gen X right of passage. You missed when you were home watching the Young and the Wrestling. Oh, what are you talking about? I remember growing up. They was arguing who won the showcase. Well, they announced who wins the showcase. No, no.

I'm talking about when mom and dad played, they played against each other. And your mom would usually won. I imagine if they'd had DVR then they could pause it. Oh, yeah. And they'd really got another. Oh, no, Bob Barker, I'm telling you, Bob Barker loved Mama because they, what's happened is, is Harold and Mary and Mama was in line out, out around the studio, a line. So Bob comes out and talks to a few of them.

Okay. You'll see which one he would prefer to come in. Oh, so he's kind of cherry picking them from the line. Yeah. So he talks to Mama and he says, Oh, yeah, we got, we got one here. Imagine there's people from Northeast Louisiana. He's like, I got to have them on.

No, no, yeah. Bob Barker had an eye for town. Yeah, we got one here. The beginning of reality TV right there. She was the first TV. Ball was the first TV star. That's crazy when you think about it. Oh, no, I'm serious, y'all.

And she won both showcases. Smart. Come home, she gave Al and Lisa a VW. Beetle. Oh, really? Yo, and what gave all kinds of, like, well, washers and stoves and stuff to people. Wasers and stuff. All the stuff you want to.

But don't you have to pay taxes when you win stuff like that? Don't you have to pay the taxes on all that stuff? I don't know what they did there. Okay. I just know mom gave away all the stuff, you know. But what was fun watching on it, you know, there's the deal. They got about 10 items. Mm-hmm.

y'all and talking about well mary you played this show she said all i played it bob no and then something okay oh this box of tie what's it called just that's two ninety-nine uh bob and it's the stang was fall two ninety nine she didn't get close it was on the penny on the penny you know and she's like if you know you know about you know she'd done about fine bob said uh you've done this a while hadn't you she said bob we don't ever miss it all right phyllis it's in your blood You ready to go meet Drew Carey? Would you win both showcases? Let's just play right now.

Throw a product up there. It's been a minute, but I can tell you that Ty didn't tune 99 anymore, more like 2299. There you go. Yeah, this is expensive. They're real proud of it. He said, throw a product up there. Actually, I have a grocery shop.

I'm not the one who does most of that. Hey, that was back when Giles was 32 cents a gallon. That's wild. I don't have any recollection of those days. How old are you? Me, 37. Okay, yeah. I got that right.

Didn't, yeah. I got nervous there for a second. A couple of weeks from 41. I remember when it hit a dollar, it was a big deal. I just remember gas hitting a dollar a gallon. Yeah, everybody was going just berserk. Yeah. I remember it got like a dollar 20.

Mom was like, you go out to cut down on how much you drive. Now I'm like, boy, what would we do with a dollar 20 gas alone? Now if it's under four bucks, I'm like, by house. Seems fair. I don't know. I don't got them to it's like, oh yeah, all right, cool. You're talking about $40,000.

That's you talking about my house. Right, exactly. And now you're going to sell, how am I always 40,000? For a car, for car. Now, it's like a four-wheeler these days. Yeah. 40,000 ain't going to get you far in a new car, Mark. Well, I'm sure that people who are watching the duck call room needed that economic advice, some of that financial advising.

Mm-hmm. Oh, yeah. Like we just got made fun of? Yeah, a little bit. but that's okay. Speaking of it. I can appreciate her humor. I like it.

She's throwing something out there. I'm like, yeah, that was it us. Yeah, there's a bunch of lying going on. From you?

No. No. From the people that run our country? Oh, I thought he was talking about it. No, no, no. Let's focus. Let's get out of there.

Let's get out of there. This has been a great conversation. I was going back to advice. Advice because. Because thanks could be lower. Okay, but they're not going to make it. Oh, lower.

Well. Well, okay. Plus the toothpaste is out of the tube. It's hard to put it back in. Yeah. Yeah. Basically. Yeah.

I mean, it is what it is. I don't know. But that's just laughing. It goes on. Like, so you had a cool DNA file. I say cool in the fact that everybody was accepted. Because that's not always the case. It is absolutely not always the case.

And that's kind of what led me toward counseling. One, I found a lot of healing. Yeah, because you are a doctor now of counseling. I'm not a doctor. Not a doctor. Not a doctor. Not like Dr. Jones. I'm a nerd. I'm actually an RN. This is a second career pathway.

I'm an RN and I was at the very end there. And that's better than a doctor. That's right. So I did psychiatric nursing and so now what happened is people started reaching out to me. A lot of people because of who my dad is. And they would just like I found out. I had a dad. I found out. I found out. I find out. And people were and I realize. And that's becoming more and more and more. Absolutely. Because you don't do any in session or a 23 and me unless you're ready for the emotional consequences of of that because there's some it has blown up some perfectly well-kept secrets. Yeah. It really has. Yeah.

Well, my, my best friend, best man in my wedding, we knew he was put up for, my aunt and uncle put him up for adoption. And we, they accidentally found him when he turned about 16 by some crazy coincidence. Yeah. And now he's one of my best friends and we're blood cousins, but we didn't grow up together. He didn't grow up here. But now with 20, I think about it, like, we would have. eventually found each other because of 23 and all the DNA tests.

That's how it works. But people were reaching out. And so, yeah, you're absolutely right. There are people who did not have a happy ending, whether that was because they loved their dad or whoever that raised them. And then they found out that that wasn't their real dad. Or they go to meet their newly found family and maybe the dad was not a great guy or passed away.

And then there's been some, it's like, oh, I found a sibling. but then when you start trying to try to get your family become close to them, that's hard to do as an adult. You know, it's hard. And no one should ever have to be introduced to their siblings. Like that shouldn't be a thing unless you're two or three years old at home and mama brings the baby home, right? That's a normal introduction to a sibling. But when I was 44 and being introduced to 40 and 50-something-year-old men who are my siblings, that's not an easy thing to do. and then to like blend the family.

And so. Well, and those four people you were introduced to are very normal, easy to go along with. Such mild personalities, really. And I was doing all the talking. At least Jeff is. Well, at Jeff on your side. Yeah. He's no longer the only baby sister is what else is.

Well, that actually puts you in a harsh environment. He does have the best hair. Yeah, it was interesting. I'm serious. Yeah. The family dynamics of that. And so that was. what drove me to to seek out like a counseling career. So that's what you do now is as help other people

that have gone through something similar or that's not even my focus. What ended up happening is when I needed to do internship and stuff and I went to Liberty University online. I had to find an internship site. And so I found the Center for Children and Families, which is where Dr. Emily Jones is the clinical director. And you remember had her on. And so, and she's awesome. And so yeah. So I now counsel kids. Kids and adolescents. up to like 21 years old. Okay. And I still work for them, even though I've moved back to Missouri to be with my grandbabies and kids, I do telehealth.

So I'm able to, I get on a Zoom call with them and I still counsel kids and adolescents and their families. Look, you know, you get those realizations in life from the honesty of toddlers. Another day, Waylon looked up at me and said, Daddy, I want to get my haircut like yours. I said, what are you mean? He said, nothing on top. And I said, a little bit of thinning happening, Martin. If only I'd have had NutriFold when all that mess started long ago, I could have a head full of hair, man. Nutrifol is the number one dermatologist recommended hair growth supplement brand used by over one and a half million people.

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spelled N-U-T-R-A-F-O-L dot com. That's NutraF-O-Com promo code. In the kids that I work with, like, they've gone, I'm trauma-focused. Like, that's what I do is do trauma-focused therapy. And so I know what that was like growing up. So that's what, and what happens is people, they grow up and they end up with mental illness and all kinds of other problems or even. while they're growing up. And so what I do is I'm hoping to interrupt that cycle because I could

have done psychiatric nurse practitioner, but I didn't want to just focus on prescribing meds. But with that, okay, because my whole family, if you'd ask them, they'd say, yeah, Merritt Robertson was crazy. That's not true. Okay. And that lady, you were talking about when she was on the show and Dr. Lee both. We're the problem. everything wrong with the human race it's our fault because we go the wrong way to do the wrong thing whatever people won't realize that and that's the truth of the matter and all those decisions when after another ends up affecting your brain affecting your body and then pretty soon you're living in dysfunction that you didn't think that you were created there's always consequences to whatever

action you choose god takes the worst stories and the worst messes and well he tells He takes the human crap that we've created. It's the NIV. And then he turns it into something good. Thylis 323. Absolutely. And he's the master of that. Of taking junk and then turning it into something

and making it something that is beautiful. Amen. Absolutely. Amen. And that's the heart of the story. you know i only share parts of my story it's memoir-esque only to give things context to then it's it's basically like testimonial right it's by testimony and see what god can do and then helping people understand whether it was their own crap as you so eloquently put it or maybe things that

happened that they didn't have control over because they were children so those things happened either way it was someone's decisions that affected someone else but there's a way out of that and god's the way out of that amen i got a question at what age roughly? Where you're like, huh, I don't think I'm, I don't think this is it. Like, I don't think that I'm, that something, like, when, at what age were you able to like, this don't pass the sniff test is what I like. So, you know, you open up to milk, you're like, oh, man.

When I was little, like elementary school age and I was tucked away in my room reading the dictionary. that was a clue. Okay. That was a clue. They're big encyclopedia guys, but I get the correlation with the dictionary. I would read everything

I could get my hands on, Uncle Sy, everything I could get, nobody in my house read, nobody was modeling that for me, but I read and still read ferociously. That's how I learned about the world, really.

That's how I learned a lot of stuff. I learned to not be okay with racism. I read in a book. I learned so much stuff by reading. It opened up a whole new world. You're like my daughter. As a child, you was a sponge. I was.

Feed me, feed me, feed me. And I would watch somebody do something. And I'm like, I can do that. I remember my mom was dating this one guy and he had a little truck, a little stick shift. And I was little. And I'm sitting in the middle. And I'm just watching him. And he's like, he noticed me watching him.

He's like, you think you can do that? So I can do it. I can do it. So he starts driving. And I watched him push down the clutch. And then I started shifting. And he's like, oh, and I'm like, yeah, I can watch you and do what you do. Like, I absolutely wanted to learn from anybody.

And I especially love learning from other people's mistakes. I found that to be quite handy. So, yeah, that's one of the things. Don't do the same stupid things just over and over and over. Exactly. Yeah, learn from it. Learn from your own mistakes. But it's okay to learn from other people's too.

That's wisdom. But, yeah, there was that. I was just personality-wise, my interest, my way of doing things, my mouth. which I'm a much more user. You come by that by DNA. I'm a much more user-friendly version of Phyllis than I used to be. I will say that. I will say that.

I have grown a lot. Is that true, Tony? No. Tony agrees. Just careful. Careful. How quick and strong do you answer that? No.

It's true. It's absolutely true. But then when I got a little bit older, I was probably in my 30s when I directly confronted my mom and said, are you sure Wayne is my daddy? And she was cooking. Yeah? I'm like, I don't know.

And I remember looking at my feet and I asked my sister, I'm like, why does my big toe look like this? And your big toe looks like that. Oh, God, you got that too? I don't have a hammer toe. Oh, okay. I was about to say, please keep your shoes on. You don't have a claw. But my feet and hands did not look like my siblings and they looked alike.

And I did not look like them. So I was able to notice those things. And before I met Dad, there's pictures everywhere, right? So then I started to look at the, and I'm looking at his feet. I'm trying to find his feet like up in his chair. We tried to hide those things. Clearly, because I couldn't find him to get photos. But I'm like, where do I get my hands and feet?

And, you know, so it wasn't just personality. It was also the physical characteristics. And I was, I was different. I just was. That must have been. That would drive me insane. Yeah. Especially somebody who reads.

And so you're already in. So then to have that in your mind the whole time. Yeah, I imagine that was. And then another thing was Joel. Oh, Joe looks. My sister would be like, but who does Joel look like? Who does Joel look like? I'm like, I don't know, you know, genetics.

It could have been a grandfather or whatever. And then we came down here. And actually on the way down here, Kendall pulled it up and she did a side-by-side comparison of Joel and dad when they're the same age. And I mean, it was like, so that's who Joel looks like. Yeah, there's a crazy. The high school pictures of Phil and the high school pictures of Joel are insane. And he's got that tall, lanky like Robertson, Bill.

He's built like that and Jace. Six, four, almost five, maybe six, four. Yeah. Very athletic. That's crazy. Yeah, very mellow layback. Now, he was super ADHD growing up. So now he's got that mellow, just go with a flow kind of thing going on.

I don't know. He's just like aloof. Maybe that's what the better word is. He's very, and he just gets distracted. But you can just tell, like, when I watch Jace, I kind of think of Joel. And then, like, Grant and Reed have similar features. You can kind of tell, and the personalities are similar. Yeah, it's been cool to watch the nieces and the nephews and my kid, you know,

and just comparison. It's so cool. Yeah, that's interesting. It's kind of sad because, like, you know, I would notice that the cousins would kind of gather around. They grew up together, and they would visit, and I'm like, my kids are not quite able to jump in on those conversations. that history is missed and there's a funeral I went to once and get-togethers and people are sharing stories from days gone by and it's that awkward sitting there like I can't

contribute to this conversation and it's just there's all of those awkward things. How did your mom react to the news of the DNA deal? Well, when... Because you said you asked her point blank and so, yeah. And that was early on before there was any kind of DNA thing. Yeah. when we first got, I didn't actually take the DNA test to start with. That was our oldest son Grant.

His girlfriend bought him the test for Christmas. So when we came back from Nicaragua for Christmas, he's like, this doesn't add up. So we started dropping hints. We ended up going back to Nicaragua, but we would all drop hints when we were around mom. If Wayne is really her dad, like, I wonder who Phyllis' dad may be, is, you know, because it was pretty clear something was up. but she was a vault. She would not talk about it.

And it wasn't until I got the actual, I did the DNA test and my sister did the DNA test. And we compared and it was factual that we did not have the same dad. I called her up and I'm like, it's DNA. And she's like, well, how do you know? And I'm like, we know. And so finally. So she wasn't going to give it up.

She held on until the bitter end. And then she said she didn't tell me because she didn't want me to hate her. Well, and I was about to say in her mind there was probably a self, preservation and be some protection too like you know if I did this is the story this is the story like and and that's not true by the way but I can see where somebody would reason to that you know like but and it also does go back you said what what made you second guess another thing that was a red flag was my dad that I grew up with told me that he found out about me in divorce court they were going through divorce proceedings and mom told the judge by the way

I'm pregnant and he's the dad. And so he's like, oh, okay, so that's kind of how, that's how she did. She already had two kids by him and she just assigned me to him. Okay. Yeah, but that's, so when you find out that you have a daughter on the way or a kid on the way in divorce court, that could give you pause, but no one ever treated me like I wasn't really his. So if there was any question in the Louisiana side, they never said anything. Now the Missouri side found out later, it all comes out, I had a cousin doing some like undercover work, go Sheila. Go Sheila. So she started doing some undercover work.

Oh, Sheila. Come to find out, my mom had told her sisters and they knew about it. And I think there was even some cousins that knew about it the whole time I was growing up and never said anything. They may not have known who. So there's always closed about it. But they knew that it, yeah. They knew. Okay.

Yeah. That's wild. Took a ride share ride the other day. And I look back at my man's just talking to. me. Self-driving car? You know what that made me think? You better get some life insurance. You better get some light of self-driving cars. Because there's no way this is going to end well, right? You need to have some form of life insurance. And next thing you know, the machines are going to look back at us and drive us off of bridges. You never know what's coming. But that's why

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rates may vary. It just makes you think all back through time, like, before the technology that exists today existed, like. So many kids. Like how much of that, yeah. Oh, yeah. It's crazy. There's a lot of illegitimacy going on.

They have gone on for years. And, you know, at least now it's a little bit more socially acceptable. Like, I wasn't shunned. Yeah. When it finally all the truth come out, clear there. Yeah. Yeah.

Well, yeah. I mean, but like you read the book and you could see how childhood was rough. So it's not like I had this one thing with my mom when we were super close. And then we've gotten back on track or whatever. I kind of, you know, with boundaries and that word gets thrown out in therapy world. And now social media. Yeah. They didn't understand the turmoil you're struggling with.

Yeah. So it's like you're wrestling with the devil the whole time. Absolutely. So I just, you know, I'm mindful with my mom because it's just not been like this incident. This has been my entire life with her. Kind of like seeing does that a little bit. What's that? Kind of like seeing does that.

Yeah. Like it gets in there and it kind of festers and then you start seeing the relationships and the things that it does. Yeah. So yeah, that is super interesting. I feel. But yeah, otherwise it does. Has settled, you know, pretty much.

You have a question. There is one elephant in the room. Your name is Phyllis. That is correct. And your dad's name is Phil. That is correct. So were you named after him? I've always wanted to know this.

Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. And my middle name's Annette. His is Alexander. So we have the same officials. Yeah.

But I mean, I'm surprised she didn't go with Phyllis Alexander, to be perfectly honest. Oh. Pull on the nose. Yeah. So she did. She did. Sorry. I've always wanted to ask you that, but I was like, I don't know if it's appropriate.

But now that we've done an hour together, I'm like, I've got to know. Look, here's a thing. Your name is Phyllis, and you had a dad you didn't know named Phil. And I'm like, that's so on the nose. It is. And we can laugh about it. And that's the beauty of laughter and part of healing. You know, laughter is good for our bodies.

And though it's a heavy story, you know, and there's a lot there. There's a lot of trauma. There's a lot of healing. But we can sit here and be joyful in the Lord and laugh. And that's okay. That's also a good. part of healing. Well,

hey, laughter is a great healer. The best medicine. Yeah. That's why the whole free world loves you. Well, no, I'm,

well, I'm serious. Bringing joy into people's lives, one tall tale at a time. And this tall tale isn't even taught. It's just a true story. No,

this one's actually true. This is just Phyllis and Phil's story. Yeah. Unbelievable. Which there's, there's way more in here to unpack you. There is. We get it.

We got 50 minutes roughly that we do these things. So don't worry. when Phyllis comes back to town, she will be back in here, because we can continue to unpack. We're trying to give a broad overview for the first one instead of like, well, tell me about being 17 and not,

we ain't trying to do that. Right, right, right, right. We need to have me on here with Gordon. Because that writing, I'm not giving Gordon a microphone. That writing process with him was epic. Oh, it was so much fun. Oh, he's crazy.

We put Gordon on a podcast. His head's already big enough. He ain't going to be able to get out the door. He's awesome. I love Gordon. He's so awesome. Oh, man. He makes me and Martin look small.

He does. Physically or mentally? Both. Physically. Both. He makes me look pretty smart. I love you, Gordon. Yeah.

His head is just a ginormant. Anybody that still proclaims go Gators in public. You got to respect it. That's a problem. He needs to get off of Florida. Their has-bens. I do. I do enjoy it.

They had their heyday and it's over. I enjoy Gordon. I enjoy the fact that he lives in, where's he live now, Carolina? We talk every day on a wordle text group. Oh, really? Yeah, oh yeah. I got off a wordal. There was one word.

I said, I'm never doing this again. What was the word? I don't remember. It's one of those grudges that you hold against something. You can't remember why you started the grudge, but I quit. I got off a word when my start word was the word. I figured there was no. I did that now.

I figured there was no top in it. So I was like. Yep. There we go. Yeah. I'm never going to get one again. I'm not going to start with a new word because then I don't even know how to play then. Yep.

So, no, but thank you. So are we good on time, Hunter? I know we had a couple of edits in there. So we think we're good. I got it. But thank you so much for coming by. And again, guys, this is just a peak, right? This is a.

And if you want the book. Yeah, that's what I was about. I never knew book.com. I was going to let her show it to the camera right there. So Hunter could right here, right here. There's a camera. I got one question asked, okay,

they all actually said the name of the book, right? He did. The first thing he ever said to me, and this is the moment that Tony was able to capture and a painting, because nobody had a camera, which was appropriate, you know,

his private moment, which was weird now that I know of the family. Private moment and a safety net all. He put his hands on my face and said, I never knew. And then the title goes back to also, like, I never knew how much healing could come.

from from the lord well i was text i because if you could you know any other thing he would have said would have been would not been a good exactly because had he known well i look at it feels like you got you got an elephant on your back and when he said that the elephant fell off absolutely a weight lifted and i can honestly say i don't i don't think he ever knew especially with the way that he made fun of his uh grandsons and others for having young girls um for for for giving birth to girls the way he really stormed that end for the whole time of being able to make four boys. I never had to like, you had to punch a hole in his man car. I don't know, no, no.

I got to be honest. When I heard I got a good chuckle because my mind went back to all the time. I want to win out of running to make girls. He's shooting low braves. Yeah. Yeah. I always, I mean, I got a little internal chuckle. just because I know how hard of a time he gave everybody else.

About. About. Not having a girl. That's hilarious. That was. That was another thing about the cool part, okay, because, you know, Phil, Feele didn't understand it.

Okay, because he would look at me sometime and all the stupid stuff I would do for Dr. Dazzy when me and him, like I'm acting like he's a little girl and dating him. Okay. Hello, Tiffany. When we did, yeah. Hello, Tiffany.

And I said, I said, you have no idea. I said, because you don't have a daughter. Mm. Yeah. I said, so when you have a daughter, I said, she's going to do one thing she's going to do first. She's going to wrap you around her little finger and you're going to be at her command. Yeah. He'd look at me.

He would tear up and he would be like, I'm glad you found me. I looked at that one, was reading it. It's great. When you said he put his hand on your face and said, little girl, I just, I never knew. Yep. Yeah, Phil, whatever got that close. And that was, that was. And that came from here.

It absolutely did. I saw it written on his face. Okay. So I'm looking, I was looking, you know, that came from the heart. Mm-hmm. I didn't know. Yep. Don't hate me.

That's exactly. Yeah. And in fairness, I couldn't. Yeah. Don't hate me. I didn't know, darling. So did you grow up? Man, we say this is a problem with it.

But did you grow up here in North Louisiana? Jackson Parish. Jackson Parish. Oh, no. See, that's what was sold. Jonesburg, Chatham or something? Jonesboro, Hodge, Quitman, we moved a lot. Rustin sometimes.

I was born at the same hospital as Alan Jace, I think in general. Now it's something else. They was in the general area. Well, you'd have to, right? Yeah, that's crazy. This is crazy. Man, I do understand that aspect of biology.

You got to at least be close to each other. You got to be in the general area. One of the rules. I may not know everything. We're not going to have a full talk for the kids listening, but one of the rules is you got to be in the same general area. Yeah, you got to get close. For the store to arrive, I don't know what's happening.

So look, God has taken something here, and then we have laughed our head off over it. You know, that's why, you know, it was so amazing to read it and then see how God put it all together and then fixed it all. And the coolest thing, you know, obviously didn't. get a ton of time here on this earth, but we've got eternity coming. Five years. You know, we've got eternity coming, which is way longer than any of us can even grasp.

Making up for lost time. Well, you can't, you know, we talk about having family reunions here. Oh, yeah. That one up there going to be tight. It's going to be epic. That's going to be unbelievable. It really is. And y'all are going to get new feet, which is a good thing.

The new body going to have pretty feet. I don't think the glorified body gonna have a six toe. I think we're gonna keep it five and five, but I may be wrong. No, no, I've been there lately. I've been just, every time I'm relaxing.

That's a lot. You've had a lot of time on you. No much thought about the glorified body. And I've been trying to figure out, you know, what is it going to be like? It's got the same teeth you got. now. Them teeth are pretty.

Those are glorified teeth. That came from Missouri. Hey, I've had a complete maker of show my favorite. I'm proud of you. That's awesome. Oh, well, we always, we got to get out of here some.

Hold on. Get out of here now. Two websites, phyllis Robertsonthomas.com to learn more about Phyllis. I never knew book.com. You can pre-order the book. Actually, you can just get the book. You need your ready.

It's pre-orders. I'm signing them. I'm signing them and mailing those out now. And then October 6 is when the book releases, maybe that would be a good time to come back on around that time. Then it'll be like Amazon and all the places. It's old. It's a very good read and a very good story that had a wonderful ending.

Thank you, Uncle Sy. And it ain't over. And endorsing it. It means a lot. Endorsed by Uncle Sy. We're still in the, what's this? there's more to come I was waiting

I was waiting on the edge of my seat I felt like a guy who really struggled for some closure there I was like what am I watching my dad says he would always say the best is yet to come he said it all the time we can probably just put this one

as part one and call it good but Phyllis we always close with a Bible verse is there one that's near and dear to you one that we'll let you have the floor on that one if you know no pressure though if you're like ah You know, things that I've been chewing on, but especially writing this book is Romans 12, too, that we are transformed by renewing our minds. And that is exactly, the Bible's full of cognitive behavioral therapy, uncle.

So I don't know if you knew that or not. But yeah, no, we are transformed by renewing our minds. There's healing there and hope in the Lord Jesus Christ. If you just give your life to him, he's going to change you inside and out. Keep your perspective and focus on him. Love it. It's almost like we should read that book. Yeah.

On you what? Some good stuff. Rather? Or it's a good read, I'm telling you. You know, you'll actually, you'll laugh a lot and chuckle a lot, especially if you ever met my brother. Okay. Because he's, he was quite an extraordinary man. Okay.

And especially after Jesus got hold of him. Well, you ain't so bad yourself. Yeah. No. Well, yeah. Neither of you are ordinary. Yeah. Extraordinary.

is the correct term. Life is fantastic. Amen. Especially when you have the creator with you on your side. And with that, we'll see y'all next time.

Right here in the duck call room. We're out.