Regina Swarn Audio Series Presents - Finding Strength After Silence

Episode Date: December 7, 2025

Fan MailWhat if the voice you lost wasn’t just your singing voice—but your true self? We sit down with author and entrepreneur Andrea A. Mohammed to explore how a mother, business owner, and believer stitched a life back together after years of hidden pain and the heartbreaking loss of her daughter, Brianna.Andrea takes us from the first shock of a childhood blood disorder to the global advocacy Brianna sparked for Be The Match and bone marrow awareness, especially in the Black community. You’ll hear about the surprise 51st birthday party Brianna planned between transplants, the foundation now carrying her name, and the practical ways a daughter’s light continues to move her family forward. It’s a story where grief becomes service, and legacy becomes action.We also talk about faith without fences. Andrea was raised in a Christian holiness church and later embraced Islamic practice, finding structure, modesty, and discipline that drew her closer to God. She shares how Psalms and the Quran sit side by side in her morning routine, and how prayer shifted from “fix him” to “God, fix me,” unlocking a path out of silence and emotional abuse. The literal return of her voice—raspier, stronger, truer—mirrors a life reclaimed.You’ll leave with Andrea’s healing blueprint: 5 a.m. prayer or meditation, daily scripture, honest journaling, movement that clears the mind, affirmations that speak life, and boundaries that protect peace. If you need a starting line, this conversation is it—gentle, firm, and filled with tools you can use today. Listen, share with someone who needs steady hope, and if this moved you, subscribe and leave a review so more people can find their way back to their own voice.CONTACT ANDREA BRIDGES MUHAMMAD 478-718-4001 DO IT FOR BRI FACEBOOK Music My free gift to the company Commrcoyÿ A message from me to all my wonderful  followers.  Please  feel free to share your feedback. Click fan mail and leave me comments.  Show endSupport the showContact [e-mail]

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Now let's take you into an episode of Regina Swark Audio Series. Hello, and welcome to another episode of Ritina Swaring Audio Series presents. Today I have a special, and I know I say this all the time. I always say I got a special, special, special gift. I'm going to say it again. Today I have a very, very special guest. She just released her memoir, and when I tell you, it's a wonderful book. I don't know if my words are good enough to say because I read the book three times,

and yet I'm still going back for more. Andrea A. Muhammad is an author, entrepreneur, the mother of sex, who turned loss into legacy. She is the founder of A and B, consulting, a personal vacation planner with caravan cruise line, and a property investor committed to building generational wealth. Her debut memoir, I Lost My Voice, shares her journey through life storms.

It tells the raw and inspiring story of navigating marriage, the heartbreak of losing her daughter Brianna and the journey of reclaiming her strength through faith, humor, and healing. Andrea is a woman who for many years lived a muted life, a woman who was simply afraid to speak, who begged for crumbs of affection. Andrea is a woman that God has rebuilt by faith. Please help me welcome to the show, the beautiful and very gifted, Andrea B. Muhammad. Hello, Andrea. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. It is an honor to be here with you today. Good morning to you. Good morning. I am so excited about your book. As you heard me say, I've read it like three times, three times.

I don't think I've ever read a book that many times, not three, maybe one, maybe two. I remember reading legend, this Marilyn Monroe's biography, but the book was so thick. It was such a thick book, but I finally got through it. But your book is, I mean, it's a thin kind of a book, and how can I put it? It's a book that is not nearly as big as some of these books you read, like thousands of pages. I should say hundreds of pages. Your book has just so many chapters, but yet it's almost like it tells your whole life story in that one book, and it's not nearly as long as most books.

What was the journey in writing that book? I just want to ask that particular question. Oh, my goodness. The journey in writing a book, well, I lost my voice originally was about, was going to be about me losing my singing voice and not being able to speak for a minute. I mean, the voice that the doctor said I would never get back that voice. It was originally going to be about it. And I thought about writing about five years ago during the pandemic. And it was like, hey, I got my voice back. I was driving back and forth, and our minister of music was saying, hey, I need you to step up. I need you to sing. I need you to, you know, give it what you got. And for me, that's what the book was going to be about how, you know, I got my singing voice back.

Little did I know then is that I needed to tell a bigger story about losing your voice and that it was a bigger thing than just my singing voice. but I really had lost my voice in many different ways from my daughter being ill, having been ill since she was 10 years old before her passing in 2023, about my marriage, and about my life in itself, about the journey to just please everyone else and not worry about myself. So that's where the book came from. Through my journey, you know, I did a lot of journaling and just talking. I was on the road during the pandemic by myself, traveling for work. When my job was shut down, I had to make sure I had something else. So I began traveling for work. And I got an opportunity to journal more and be in oneself more from my walking daily two or three miles, you know, with my dog.

with my dog. So I got a chance to be with myself and actually get to learn more about myself and find out that I was that person that I knew I could be, but I was not, I stepping up to the plate yet to be her, that I was being it for everyone else. So that's where this book came from. I lost my voice. Wow. I want to, as I was reading in the beginning of your book, you dedicated this book to some very special individuals, your seven children. And I remember reading in the book, you quoted, you said a lot of things about your daughter, Brianna. And I'm going to ask you about your princess right now because, you know, she's with the Lord.

and I wanted to ask you about Breonna because she was such a beautiful soul on earth and her legacy you know I didn't get to go to the funeral but I didn't see what

that young lady stopped traffic she stopped traffic so many people attended that funeral it was like a political person you know was gone right there were people standing outside and over 80

thousand views of her funeral and well wishes to the family from that she did stop traffic for sure oh my God and so I didn't see like I wasn't there but just from what I could see so I imagine that

the people that was there they could really see everything mm-hmm it was a beautiful thing yes yes yes yes I was talking about your yes yes yes yes I can talk about her. And for those that would like to view her funeral,

just type in her name, Brianna, B-R-I-A-N-A-S-T-E-N-A-S. It is on YouTube. So you can take a look at it. I am going to do that. I'm going to do that. I'm going to do it. A beautiful homegoing celebration for her. But let me first say this. Let me give a big shout out to my six sons, okay? My six sons before I talk about Brianna. Those boys,

range in age from 17 to 28. And when I say those boys were there for me, Perquan, Davian, Caleb, Khalid, Mustafa, and Yusam, they were my strength as well. They were my strength. They were there for me when I couldn't be there for myself. One of my sons made his business to hug and kiss me every single day. My Mustafa, he came and he kissed me every night before. he went to bed. He made sure I turned my light out, you know, at night. Sometimes I would

fall asleep with the lights on because I would find it, you know, not easy to rest. And those boys, those boys stuck by their mom when their mom couldn't be everything she needed to be for them. So big shout out to those boys. I call them my Muhammad boys, okay? They are my guys for sure. So big shout out to them. Now let's think about my angel, my angel, Brianna. man, we found out she was sick at the age of 10. And I remember when my ex-husband took her to the doctor from me, I was working at AT&T at the time. And my ex-husband took her to the doctor, and he called me, and he said, Andrea, I think you need to get up here. They said, Brianna has a blood disorder.

And I'm going, what? This was the same little girl that had entered the modeling world, okay? Started her, had a first photo shoot with Walmart. She had entered the modeling world. Just beautiful inside and out. And how are you telling me that little girl that had never been sick a day in her life now has a blood disorder? So immediately, yeah, I left work, you know. I left work to run up to the hospital.

They didn't give it a name then. They just said, hey, we've got to run these tests. And, you know, for weeks, even months, we didn't know what the name of her illness was. They finally gave it a name after about a year. And they said, it's called aplastic anemia. It was a blood disorder, a bone marrow failure. Her blood didn't clot. And they said, without a transplant, she would not live two years.

So if you can imagine being told that your child would not live two years. Let's say, I wanted to shock. I wanted to shock. I went into depression. And I cry every single day. Three or four days, I think she was in the hospital. She got to come home. There were no medicines to give her at the time.

There was nothing. Just watch her and be careful. You know, a little bruise could change her life easily. Oh, my goodness. Yeah. So I didn't let her do very much where I wasn't around because that could change her life. But I gave Breonna as a God so that I can regain my sanity

because I went from taking happy pills because I cried every day. I was pregnant. I was always pregnant every two years. Pregnant every two years. So I had to give, I had to give Brianna to God just to regain my sanity. And we chose to live.

you know right and so brianna said mom you know can i do this and mom can i do that and i said whatever you want to do baby you can do it just let me know and we lived our life um with riana like every day was her last that's what we talked about we talked about showing up and showing out for ourselves and i poured into her that mindset that every day you're gonna live like it's your class and live it to the fullest. And my baby did that. She did that. She did. She went throughout high school.

She might have been 30 or 40 days, but she still graduated with high honors. She went to college. She had taken several degrees herself and opened up her own businesses. She initially started to do it for Bree Foundation. That Do It for Brie Foundation was to make people aware of, blood disorders that require transplants, how we as black people

were the last ones to be able to get a transplant of a bone marrow transplant because we're not enough of us on the list to do that. So she became an advocate for the Be the Match Foundation before she died.

So here, you'll see if you search her name again, see that she was on billboards. She was on Fox 5 News Atlanta. She was on WMAZ down in Macon. She was throughout. She became worldwide and speaking about bone marrow failure and what we need as a people as a whole in order to stay alive. So what we've done is revisited that. We have re-established the Do-It for Bree Foundation as well in her name with a few good people that have decided to sit on that board with us to keep her name alive. home at Dunaos Perception for the latest in fashion, clothing, shoes, bags, accessories, and so much more. Shop www.dunumousperception.com

Elevate your vision. Tell them I sent you. Wow, that is so beautiful. That's a beautiful honor to carry on her legacy because, as we were saying in the beginning, she had such a spirit about herself. Every time I would see her online, she was doing. something. I never seen a dull moment where she wasn't doing something. She was either modeling or she was, you know, working or doing something. And a lot of things she would do to help other people

because I see the Christmas thing that she did. And she did a lot of stuff to help other people as well, which is very commendable. Oh, my goodness. Right, right. She gives back to the hospital. She gives back to the children hospital. We have since took on another hospital up here in Atlanta as well but she started at her home base in Macon, Georgia the Children's Hospital

and we have scheduled now another presentation to the Children's Hospital on behalf of Brianna, the Dewa for Bree Foundation and Infinity and Dion, which was how she started the organization, Infinity and Dion, presenting gifts to the children

at the Children's Hospital. So we're going to continue her legacy with that. So we are currently accepting gifts in her name as well. That is so beautiful. And I got to say this. I want to say this. I remember when she was kind of, I think this could have been a few,

maybe a few weeks before she passed. From my understanding, and I could be wrong, and you could tell me, let me know, she put together your birthday, because I've seen a picture with her on it. and this was during the time she was sick. I was like, oh, my God.

And that's a few days later she's gone, but she was there for that. Oh, my God. Yeah, she put together our 51st birthday celebration. So I have a twin sister. And my twin sister and I were back and forth at the hospital with her for our milestone celebration, which would have been our 50th birthday. And so Breonna, Andre, and I, we met for dinner for our 50th birthday because the doctors had, you know, released her to at least go to dinner with us after her first transplant. And so from that moment on, they tell me that she began planning number 51 for us.

And when I say, I had no idea, you know, she asked me about, she asked me about, she asked. me, you know, what did I want for my birthday? And I was like, I just want a family picture. All my children were home. And I just really want a group photo of my family together. I want to everybody. That's all I desire. Well, for those of us that know, Brianna, she was a great photographer. And she also had a great photographer friends. So she got one of her friends, Jay to do our photos for our birthday, you know, for our birthday that year. And this is what we thought. We thought we were just going in for a birthday photo shoot, but what we had, and she dressed

us, okay, we had a great gaspy theme, okay? She dressed us. Yes, it was so beautiful. It was really creative. She was such a creative person in herself. She had everything about her creative. So it was a great gassy theme. So we were all dressed in our, you know, beautiful black.

I had a black. My sister had on red and it was, you know, we had a little things on our head. It was just really, really beautiful picture of my entire family, including my grandchildren, that were in the picture. And that party was the day before she went into the hospital for her second transplant. It was the day before she went in the second day. the next day and she started her process for her second transplant

which I was her donor for her second transplant so that was beautiful I had to ask that because I remember seeing that I was like oh my gosh she planned that whole thing

and then oh my God what a child what a child I really believe that was her goodbye to everybody I really believe

that God had spoken to Brianna in her own private place and her own private time. And I really believe that this was her opportunity to say goodbye to everyone because she invited so many people to this thing. She was telling me later that she invited so many people to it. And a lot of them couldn't make it. But those that did, I did not ever expect to be there at the time. that at my home going at that birthday party. I didn't expect the ones that I saw to be there. A lot of my family was there. And Brianna made this elaborate speech to them about not RSVPing.

And, you know, she's like, and y'all make me sick. Y'all should have RSVP. But I'm so, and in the same voice saying, I'm so glad that you're here because my mom and my auntie deserves this. They deserve this. I'm so glad that you're here. Thank you for coming. She's just, burst into tears and she sang and she danced and she greeted everyone, even though she wasn't feeling up to par. So I really gave her goodbye to everyone. And I'm so grateful. I'm so grateful for my birthday party.

It was the first birthday party I ever had as an adult. Wow. And it was beautiful. It was well prepared. The food was great, and the family and friends that showed up was wonderful. We had a wonderful time, and my girl did that. You know, my baby did that, okay? I had to bring that up because you see the picture.

I think you got the picture on one of your pages where, you know, that picture was that party. And it's so beautiful. And your whole family, you know, the guys, your sons, boys, they're there. And it just seemed, you got such a beautiful family. I just want to say I admire that. You got such a beautiful family. And like you say, your sons, they just rallied around you during the time that you were

going through all of your, you know, your things that you're going to, that you wrote about in your book, your sons were there. And I made so many notes. I don't know where to look. He had so many notes here. But one of the things I love when I read, was reading the book, you always have a Bible verse right there underneath everything that you would say. You have like a Bible verse underneath it. And then, of course, you have stuff by the Quran.

Am I pronounced it right, Quran? The Quran. The Quran, yes. It was a surer from the Quran. Mm-hmm. Yeah. And I don't mean to jump to for. ahead, we'll say I'm going to go back, but

would it be okay if I ask a few questions about your faith and your religion? Absolutely, absolutely. Go ahead. Okay, well, I was wondering, are you a, do you consider yourself

a Christian or a Muslim? Hello there, I'm reaching this word. Thank you so much for enjoying my podcast, stories, live true stories, people from all walks of life. If you are interested in being a part of my show, my podcast, please write to me at sworn regina. At e-mail.com. Now, stories from all walks of life means I cover everything. That's religion, politics. everyday life music, you know, once a point of time I just covered music, but now I cover everything.

So again, contact me at Swerin Regina at gmail.com. And thank you so much for checking out my shows right here at IHeartRadio. Take care. So I consider myself one who believes in God, you know, that there is a superior being that created all things. I do not necessarily separate the two. Both of those molded me into who I am today. I was raised in a Christian holiness church as a young girl, and I converted over to Islam right before I got married. I started studying Islam

I started studying Islam right before I got married and I think they both grounded me and or mowed me so my relationship with God did not change it just deep and it just deep and so I don't put a title on it I love God and I think that the way that I move in my life it shows that I love God and people as a whole and I carry myself, and I hope that they see God in me when you speak to me, when you talk to me, and when you see me. I hope that you see God in me.

Yeah. You kind of answered the question I was about to ask you, too, like, how did your relationship, you know, shift, you know, when you embraced the Islam faith? How did it, you know, shift your relationship with God, I would say shift when you embrace the Islam faith? I think that's what I was trying to say. Yeah, you know, with Islam is a lot of structure, okay? It's a lot of discipline, you know, the prayer five times a day. There's a lot of structure. So, you know, I just felt like it expanded my understanding of the one and true living God.

You know, I think that I feel like it expanded it. I remember when my grandmother, God rest her so embraced that I was in the nation of Islam. She loved that I kept my body covered. She loved that I wore, you know, my hijab. She loved that. And she expressed that to me. So I feel like, you know, with Islam, it brought me closer to God. It complimented what I already believed.

So there's no opposites for me. They were both two paths that taught me about the same same. creator, okay, about the same creator, the true and living God. Right. I love the way that they dress. They dress like, you think, holding this wood dress, you know, like with the head covering and, you know, just very respectful. I guess it's, I hope I'm using the right word, but they, they dress very modest, is the

word I'm trying to find, very, very modest. I love, I love seeing the way they dress, you know, with the thing on their head and, you know, in the dress. And I've seen you a lot in your, you know, dress like that. And you look just, look so good. And I can see what a mom was, what she meant about that. Thank you. Well, let me say this also real quick. The dress was just the outer appearance.

That modesty also was instilled in our inner. as well. It was in, but that's also modesty in Christianity. So Christianity planted the seeds. Islam grew it for me. So that's where the shift comes in, because of the growth. So the covering on the outer appearance is one thing. But the covering inside, how you carry yourself inside, is what makes the true person, the person who you truly are.

Wow It sounds like it really disciplined you You know The Islamic you know Faint It sounded like you became very disciplined You know When you started

You know Started with Islam It just seems like it to me That you're very disciplined Very much so Very very much So Like I said it grew me

From the rebellious little girl To a grown what we call MGT. I feel that I will always be a Muslim girl in training

and learning to be the best part of me for you all to see and for my family to see as well. Right.

So I want to ask this question now I love I love your book is I think it should become a bestseller and everybody out there

should go pick up their book, pick up this book. I lost my voice by Andrea B. Muhammad. It is a book when I tell you, you know. He and I read it three times and I'm going to probably read it again because I love it. It's a go-to book for me just to go to just to make me feel better, believe it or not. I go and just read that book and just say, wow. Is that where you met your, is it your ex-husband now, or is it, you know, the one that you wrote about? Is that where you met him at? So actually, my ex-husband went to school with me.

I didn't quite know him in school. Even though his last name was very close to mine, I didn't know him in school. I met him when I went to college. When I went off to college, I ran into him. He was outside my mother's house talking to my brother. He was an entertainer also. He wrote music and he rapped and my brother did the same thing. So he was actually friends with my brother.

He was friends with my brother. And so I dropped by my mom's house just to, you know, I went to school near. So I was taking a little break. So I dropped by my mom's house. And he was standing outside talking to my brother. And I talk about this in the book, you know, how he said, hey, what are you doing? And I said, I'm in school, I'm in college. He said, what are you studying?

And I said business. I did see that. Yeah, yeah. And he said, I always said my wife will be my business partner. And, you know, I just chuckled it off and, you know, gave him my phone number. And it's funny. I gave him my phone number and went from there. You know, he was over there also with, you know, some more of my friends that I had not seen.

And so I gave both of my phone numbers like, hey, I'll talk to y'all soon. Just, you know, thinking nothing, thinking nothing at all, just like, okay, y'all call me, see y'all later, you know. That's the same thing, that's just, you know, my spirit in general. Yeah, call me, see you later. And, you know, shortly, you were inseparable. Right. He became your soulmate. Yes.

He became what I thought would be my soulmate. He was my best friend. We talked about so many things, you know, in the beginning. You know, and I saw. 28, 28 years? 28, 28 years, yes, 28 years out there. Yeah, wow. So did, um, okay, yeah, that I was reading that.

I was like 28 years and I had to make sure I read it right. It was like, oh my God, it said 28. It said 28. So it said that he could be charming and all the good things. I read that, but how long did it take before you notice that other side of him? You know, the side that you write about in your book? You know, I don't know. It took a long time because I believed in him.

I trusted him. And, you know, no one has ever written a book that they can say that it's a, you know, the honest and true way to make a marriage word. And all I know is that I wanted my family to be together. I wanted to be not be a part of generational curses. I wanted to be different than those that had gotten married and divorced. My grandmother was married for many, many, many years. Both of them were married many, many years.

One, both to their husband's deceit, died, you know. So I wanted to be a part of it. I've seen what it looks like, and I knew it was going to take worse. I missed a lot of the signs in the beginning because all my focus was on my family and not on myself. I focused on my children. I focused on my husband. And whatever my children and my husband wanted, if it was in my power, I was going to make it happen. I was the make it happen person.

So that's what I did. The propundance of my life. I think I didn't see it for about 17 years. Oh, my goodness. 17 years. And then I realized that the signs were there prior to those 17 years. I just wanted us so badly that I did not see myself. And I just was working for us as a family.

as a whole. Hey there, I'm Regina Sword. I always leave my email in my podcast, but now it's super easy to leave me a message through fan mail. Just press the button and just type away. That easy, guys. So this message is included in every last line of my podcast. Click fan mail. Send me a message today of your favorite podcast or if you'd just like to send an encouraging word or feedback. I am waiting. Hit that fan mail and I'll get your message. Thanks a bunch, guys.

So by then, you had, you already had some kids, too, by that time. By the time you noticed. Yes, I had a lot of them. The baby's 17 years old. The baby boy just turned 17, the first. Wow. So, yeah, it took some time. And I may have seen a little bit here and there, but I finally began to stand on it.

and try to speak on it at that time. Right. And he just said, sometimes he could be charming and went, but then sometimes he can be the other way. And the part they got me when you said that you had to beg for crumbs of affection. Yeah. Yeah. If you know him, he was very, very, very, very charming, very, um,

charming and the way that he used, he's a writer, the way that he used his words would make me just obey submit and I would just do those things. When I failed to realize is that I missed out on a lot of things like, you know, just the dating each other part. I never saw it until later that we didn't date each other. We were home. a time. You know, we went on vacations only with the children. We didn't go on vacations, just us. We didn't go out to dinner with just us. And then the dinner that we went out to, I may not even eat the food, but it was what my family wanted. So I didn't eat seafood. They did. But even on things like my birthday, we would go places that he wanted to go,

or that my family wanted to not where I wanted to go. I remember when I realized that he wasn't purchasing even my birthday gift. He would call my sister and tell my sister to do it for him.

So there was no thought behind it. And even to this day, probably, I know up until I saw his passport paperwork a couple years ago, he was still getting my birthday wrong. But, you know, I giggled it off. I laughed it off, you know, even though, because I couldn't

be 100% mad because he thought my birthday was the day before. So he always said that my birthday was October 26 instead of October 27. So I didn't think it wasn't a big thing to me then, but I had to think about it later about, you know, how is it that you love me? And you don't know my birthday after all this time. I've given you all these children. And some people would say that small. But for me, that's a big thing after so many years because I didn't forget it. Yes, of course. Yeah. So, you know, so those type of things, you know, I laughed them off. So the signs were there. The signs were there. I just brushed them off as nothing. I had too many bigger things going on like Brielle's illness and I needed to make sure that she's probably

The joyous side of me and everyone else needed to see the joy that I had in me when I was really tearing up inside. That's what I was saying. In the book, you say you were bleeding inside, that you cannot see the bruises on the outside. Like most people like domestic violence, you can see the bruises. In your case, it said that you were bleeding on the inside. But the thing about this, no one could tell because you were happy. you would go about your life I mean

according to your book no one could ever tell that you were going through the things that you were going through still very successful in a lot of things that I was doing in my life I never published you

I never put it out there on social media or anywhere else I dare not tell anybody you know about the things that I was going through with my family I dare not speak really of my husband at all.

Correct. So you could not tell that there was something going on, and I didn't show it. You know, I smiled to keep from crying some of the times. And then when I get home, I would then cry or, you know, just go into my own little quiet space and write. One of my Muslim sisters was by my side a lot of the time. Taliba, she saw some of it. She reached out to me often. She talked to me often.

She was one of those that I could go to and I could talk to and I could provide in about some of the things, about some of the things that I was going through, but I dare not tell her everything either. I dare not tell her everything because I didn't feel I could. And then years later, she told me that, that we were talking and that she

I thought I had hung up the phone and she could hear him talking to me in the background belittling cursing me out talking to me in a kind of way and I would not say anything that she said she had to hang up the phone so quickly at that time when she heard that. And he cried when she told me.

I was like, oh, my God. And she said she cried too. And she began to tell me to read the book. This is my Muslim sister. She began to tell me to read the book of Psalms every day. Wow. She told me, because I was praying that, God just fix my husband.

My God, please fix my husband. Please fix my husband. And I would pray that prayer all the time to fix my husband, God, fix him. And she encouraged me to pray that God sees my family through all of this. Right. That God continues to give me sanity. She said, stop praying for you. your husband, tell God to fix you.

And from that moment on, I started reading the book of phones and praying that God fixes me, okay? Whether that's for me to be the person that I needed to be for my husband or fixing me to be the woman of God that I needed to be for my family. So from that day forward. Well, and you said, letting people in didn't make you weak. It made you whole. I like that.

It's so many parts in this book that I love, but it's certain parts I picked out in that part. But letting people in didn't make me weak. It made me whole. Like, wow. It said so much. For many years, a person that goes through something like this verbal and our mental abuse, it's embarrassing. it's an embarrassing thing it's embarrassing

especially when you look and you're so successful everywhere else what they see is a successful woman a successful family we created businesses together all they saw is that unity and to be able to say that

it's embarrassing it made me feel small to think about it but then one day like I said when speaking with Taliba, my mind began to shift. I started back going to church. Not because I joined it, my son, Vavion, he asked could he join the church. He had been going over to the church with my sister, Andrea. He wanted to sing and the choir. He had such a beautiful voice.

voice. He wanted to sing in the Christ. So he said, he said, Mom, I want to join the church. And I said, boy, you want to join the church? You sure? I said, oh, I don't know what your dad's going to say about this. He said he wanted to go in church.

I said, well, Zavion, you can join a church if you go down by yourself to join the church. I'm not going with you. I want to hold down. I said, well, why do you want to church to join a church? said, I want to sing in the church choir. I said, well, I did that as a little girl. And so I see nothing wrong with it.

So, yes, if you do it yourself, then, yeah, you can join the church. And so I was going there just to listen. But when he joined that church and the pastor, Pastor Stanley, asked him, did he believe in God? He said, yes, because I know that my mom would have loved. lost my mind, lost her mind, if there was no God. Right now. Wow.

So you think that your children don't see? Yes. But they do. They do see. They may not speak on it. They may not know what it is. But they see because we were still in the same household did. And they could see.

And he said, my mom would have lost her mind. If it was no one. So, yeah. So, so sweet. So, so sweet. And I was looking at some point, you had started to sing too, but then you stopped singing because you were going through all of these stuff. You completely stopped singing.

You had no more joy. You felt like you had no more joy. You know, your voice brought, you somewhat joy. And then with that happening in your life, it's like it just beat you down mentally, so badly. Not just mentally, but physically. Like, I literally love. I lost my voice. I couldn't speak. The doctor said I would never, ever sing again. The doctor said that my vocal cords were not for singing and or talking. I had a very, I mean, you couldn't hear me. I could not speak. They said I needed to have surgery that I had put too much stress on my vocal cords. And so I needed to have surgery in order to be able to speak. again. I never had surgery. I trusted that there was a bigger vision for my life other than

surgery. So I just chose the singing. I said, okay, well, I won't sing again. At least I can talk because when my voice did start coming back, it came back with this raft that you hear from time to time, kind of airy that you hear today. But it came back. And so I was content with just being able to talk. He said, no screaming at the football games for the boys. No, this. Because you can look it for good. And so I didn't sing until I joined the church, finally.

And my sister said, okay, join the choir. And I said, no, I probably won't be here long. You know, I'm not joining the choir. I said, but if I'm here in a year, then I will join the choir. She helped me accountable to that, okay? She held me accountable to joining that choir. You're twin sister, right? Your twin sister.

Yeah. Yeah. She helped me accountable to joining that choir. You know what? Then they told me I had to audition. Like, what? I don't even know the first church song to audition for this. I need to see where you're going to be.

I said, I'm an alto. That's what you. I'm an alto. So put me over there. Like, no, you got to audition. You have to audition. And I know that's where the shift happened where I began to sing again. Although I shied away, I shied away over there on the alto side, you know,

with every voice and sing. That's what I audition to. That's what I auditioned. That's what I sung. And then I just shifted my way over there on the second or third row in the choir state until they start moving me closer to the front. We can't hear you. We need you to come down. Oh, we want to up.

So, that's where it started. And then the pandemic happened. And we couldn't go into the church. And so he had to have a few voices to come in. And so I remember many weeks driving down from Tennessee. Like I said, I was on the road. So I'm driving from Tennessee from Virginia just to help the choir out. Because I felt like with obedience that God will give me grace, you know, for all the things that I had done.

And somehow I'll find my way back to my family, including my husband. I felt that in my spirit and getting those things right I thought that in my head and so I was like God you know you I know you don't bless mess but I'm going to continue to be obedient in your name for whatever blessing

you have for me or whatever blessing you have me and I moved to corner of a lot it says such so it says so much about you you were it's like you were there for everybody else

it's like you were too thing you were there for everybody yourself for yourself but you was there for everybody else you wanted to make sure everybody else was happy and I know earlier you would say you would go out

you wouldn't really eat the food but you would just go out and everybody else would enjoy themselves and that's just oh my God that's just amazing I was reading something else in your book that caught my attention. Oh, my God. I hope I'm not jumping.

It was something in your book, you have like a daily reading blueprint like of things that you, that you, is this something that you do daily? You say daily or perform daily? Right, right. This is what I began. Yeah, this is what I began doing.

I began doing this. It wasn't something that I automatically just did, but it was what helped me grow. It was what helped me find my healing, okay? So I started every single day. I still wake up at 5 o'clock, you know, that's Islam, Islam taught me to wake up every day at 5 a.m. and began prayer and meditation. So I did that. I would wake up at 5 a.m.

and meditate, pray. I would get out on that pavement and I would walk every day. I would write down my thoughts every single day. And I would pray out and find that verse and psalm. We have a little ritual where we kiss the Quran, the spy, the back, and the front and put our forehead. on that before we start reading, and we just opened the book.

So I would open the book of Psalms, and I would continue reading. And after reading songs, I would just do that with the Bible and or the Quran. And wherever I stopped, that meant it was time for me to read that verse. That meant that that verse was what was needed for me that day. You know, I chose to eat better, you know, to not. make sure I was eating, you know, on a daily basis and eating the right things to give me the energy that I needed to get through today. But mostly just reading, you know, when we talked earlier this morning when you called me, I said, you said, what are you doing? I was like,

I was reading a book. I was reading a book. I was reading a book. Because growth is necessary And sometimes you find in a book. So, yeah, prayer, journaling, and moving my body, okay? Right. That one, two, and three. Moving your body, whether it means that you're stretching, you're doing some yoga. I tried everything, okay? I did yoga.

Stretching yoga. Walking was my thing. I would walk for miles, okay? to gather my thoughts to gather my thoughts and be there for myself this is how I showed up for myself because you have to

you have to show up for yourself you have to show up for yourself or you will just dissolve you know you'll become a person that you don't want to be but most importantly speaking life into yourself

I started speaking life back into myself daily affirmations. You are good. You are great. You can do this. You are bigger than your problems. Peace looks good on you. Walk in your becoming. If you are friends with me on Facebook,

you'll see that I put something motivational out there every day, speaking life into others. Those are the same things. Those things that I speak about, I have to speak to myself. Still, daily right now, I have to remember I am worthy of rest, fun, excitement, life, living. I have to remind myself. And I love it too. And this is the same thing about your daily reading.

I love the part with saying you protect your boundaries. Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. Someone calls me with something, you know. I give it a hot second, but if you're, if you got something and it's not going, I'm hearing something that's off, you know, okay, I talk to you later. you know, because at the end of the day. I love that.

Oh, my God. I love it. I have to be there for me. So I can't let your spirit break me down. And even, and that doesn't mean that I don't love you, that I'm not friends with you, that I'm not going to be there to listen or hear you, but I got to step a little bit bad because this might not be the day that I can just soak it all in and then lead you. Sometimes I had to ask my friends, you know, my friends and my family, hey,

do you want me just to listen or do you want me to resolve or do you want me to tell you what I think so I honor myself by not choosing chaos I choose every single day and I want that for my friends and family so you know my mother told me once upon a time as I'm sure others have if you don't have anything good to say don't say it so I'm not a lot saying that I'm perfect. I'm not perfect in that at all. But I love this. I love these daily things that you wrote out. And as you explain them, they just, they just come to life. You know, when you explain them, like another would say, welcome, safe community. The other one say rest without guilt and repeat tomorrow. So you, same thing over and over. Oh, my God.

It's okay. It's okay. You know, when we talk about, the community and how they play a part in it. You have to know that your community, your safe space is out there. I didn't know that. I didn't believe that. I had to face this by myself. I hid at my house.

I didn't go around, you know, some of my family, probably ever, you know, from, you know, my grandmother didn't meet my husband until after we were separated. We were separated. He showed up at a family reunion when it was in naked. He showed up there. Everybody was like, is that?

They call me big sister, okay? Is that big sister? Is that big sister? Yeah. You know, he showed up. Not that I don't think he really showed up necessarily for me. I don't know why he showed up. Honestly, but he showed.

After our separation, after many, many years. Oh, my goodness. You're number 27. I hit away. And my purpose for my book was not just to vent. My purpose was the healing blueprint for others to see a way out and that there is a way out. And it's okay to have been there, but give.

out. Get out. Realize that you have your sisterhood or your brotherhood because men go through these two. It's not just a woman's thing. Men go do this too. So to realize that it's not just you by yourself, that you have a community, a people that want to be there for you and will be there for you. Just open your mouth. Just cry out for God to show you your path that you need to take and take it boldly, confidently. Take it and don't think that anybody's looking at you funny because if they are, that's their problem. It's not yours. Yeah. I'm listening to you and you are just such a speaker. You just got, it's like you put, you're putting out so much knowledge and wisdom and

all I can just sit here and honestly just listen to you because it's just so real. I can feel what you're saying. It's so real. It is real. It is definitely real. It's real. And my hopes

that there is someone that's out there that hears this and will soak it in and find their voice again. I pray that in putting myself on the forefront, that it heals someone, that it protects them, that it covers them, and shows them that that they are not alone.

I show up today as the healed version of myself. That's what I'm going to ask you. You have a daily practice, don't you? That was my question. You have a daily practice. I show up as the Heal version And Heal doesn't mean that you still don't feel Heal doesn't mean that you still may not go through something

That means that you know what to do to get over that something Losing that child will be with me for the rest of my life She was a light when there was darkness Okay She was a true light But she gave me so much light that is resonating through me today that I want to give to everyone else. I want to, I want to remind them of her life, of her life.

And like I said, I hope that they see it for me. Well, you are, I keep saying it, but you are, I can't help but listen, you know, to what you're saying, because the words that you're, that the lawyer, it's giving you this, hey, they are so, they're packed with wisdom, their wisdom words. And if someone would listen to someone that's actually been through this, because I'm going back to your book, a part in your book where you were, where you say, how your prayers, when you prayed, there wasn't those kind of prayers that people would expect. They would be the groaning and that kind of prayer. And it would be like the perfect prayer. I'm trying to remember that looking at my notes.

It wouldn't be those perfect prayers, but it would be just that, go ahead. You got it. You go ahead. You know, so when you hear other people pray, you know, it sounds so good. They know the right word to say. But when you're going through something, when you're going through something, those prayers aren't perfect. You know, I used to always think to myself that I did not know how to pray. But what I found out, it was just speaking to God.

You know, that's what prayer is. It's just speaking to God. Yes, he knows our heart, but putting it out there so that you know your heart. So I would just, it didn't look good all the time. I would stumble over words, but it would be from the heart. It would be, it would be from the heart. When I ask God to protect my children from whatever it is, Seen and unseen, when I ask God to heal my daughter or protect or take the pain away, you know, I asked for God to take the pain away.

You know, I didn't know what that was going to look like. I cried. I cried. But I watched my daughter sit, sitting free on the side of the bed in pain and say, Mommy, Mommy. As a grown woman, Mommy, Mommy, when you just rub my back, I hurt so much. Oh, God. You know, so rubbing her back and singing to her. She loved to hear me sing to her, no matter what my voice sound like.

She loved the song. She loved Thanks for my child. That was the song. You loved thanks for my child. And every now and then, you'll see I'll post it because I'm in thoughts her but she loves that song and yeah I would um sing that song for her and I did I sung that song at her hospital blood and I rubbed back and I was like God take the painful way and I told God thank you because it's a big thing to be great you can ask for a lot right

you can keep asking and keep asking but we have to be grateful we have to be thankful So thanks for my child was Even as I was praying I was going thanks for my child Thanks for my child However the future She's living through you too She's living through you

Like That's what I read in your book That she lives through you Through you Mm-hmm Yes she's living through me Like I said the foundation The Do It for Brief Foundation

has been re-established. We are working hard to make sure that others know about bone marrow disorders, and we want to help those that are struggling. It cost a lot of money to get a transplant, and most people don't know that it cost a lot of money to get a transplant, but my ex-husband and I had to come together and, you and with my twin sister and make sure that her house didn't go under and her house wasn't foreclosed on, that the life stayed on, but also take care of the bills where Brianna had to stay once she was released from the hospital.

So her foundation is up for that purposes. We want to make sure that others get the help that they need when they get ready to have, get ready to get a transplant. We want to make sure that the funding is going to be there for that. We want to make sure that the knowledge is out there so that we could be more educated. But not only that, not only that, she lives through me because she, one of her last few things that she said to me before she lost her speech was to live. She said, live, mom, you deserve it. After all this time, live, you've raised us.

And we're going to be okay, but you need to live. And she said, I love to see you smile. And I'm going on. Those are words that I live with every day. So every step that I take, you'll see all, even on my post, I'll put all hashtag, do it for breath. Every step that I take, I know that she's watching, that she's watching. that she's watching and that I need to walk

in my purpose walk in my healing I need to make sure not only the things that she saw that needed to happen happens but the things that I saw for me

need to happen that the things that she saw are that we see in her brothers are happening so I remind them that she even though she was my child I was her mother but even in the way

that I teach them or the way that I continue to mold them comes from her living walking in excellence she's my strength she's definitely my joy

and because of her act of love I'm going to give that love back to everyone else and whether it's in my training mentoring, speaking to them, helping them build their businesses,

whatever. It's going to resonate that I'm walking in the light of my child and don't get me wrong. I give honor to God for everything

that he has given me every single thing including the voice in my child and now my voice. Amen. Let me say Like amen in the Quran.

Do you pronounce it differently or is it the same way? It's amen. Amen. Amen. Okay. Amen. Not amen. But you can say it in a way that you want to say it because it is still recognized by the Almighty God.

Right. And I just loved that. I was wondering how you pronounce it though. And so it's amen. Okay. So a lot of times when we pray at the end of the end. of our prayer, we say, we actually kind of sing it a little bit. It's, ah, me, so we'll kind of sing it at the end of the prayer.

You've got a beautiful voice. God is good. God is good because he gave it back to me. You got a beautiful voice. You really do. You got a beautiful voice. It carries a good tune that you tell. It's just beautiful.

God is good. God is good. I recover. It is not what it used to be, but God knows is what it's supposed to be. That's what it is. And I'm thankful you to have to get that surgery that the doctor was talking about. I would have never known that. Whoa.

Yeah, and I never had it. You know, it was really strange because this doctor, the specialist that I went to at the ear, nose and throat doctor, you say, well, your vocal cords were not first speaking. It's the first time I ever heard anything like that in my life. He said, it's actually swallowing. He said, but when you swallow, I could see your vocal cords look like rubber bands that are damaged. So you think about a rubber band that stretches, and then you stretch it so far, the next time you stretch it's weaker. So he could see that vocal word that weak.

That's how he explained it to me. It's been so many years ago, but I remember it because it's been, I don't know, 21 years ago. My stress got away of sitting you, man, that's stress. So anyway, Andrea, can we do a part two? I hope we can. Absolutely, absolutely. I'd be glad to. Anytime you just let me know, I know this was wonderful.

I really do appreciate you having me on that. You know, talking about my book, but also just letting me speak about, you know, just whatever my heart felt at the time. You know, this was unrehearsed. So I was not prepared, but I could only give you who I am. So, you know, they said, always be ready, right? I just love how you're speaking and you are, what do you call it, one of the speakers that speak.

It seems like that's what you do. You know how to speak and you speak very well and you speak enough for people. to just listen because all I can do was listen to you and the things that you were saying was so beautiful

for God I went on a little I went on a short little mini tour promoting the book and I had the book there and someone asked me

was I a speaker and I said no I'm not a speaker I'm just the author I'm just it though it seems like it I had to rewind

I had to rewind like I say your community pours into you also That young lady, she told me, she said, you're an author, you're a speaker. She said, so on it. So, like I said, I'm imperfect in some things, and I'm still growing. Like I said, healing.

I made little of it. I said, oh, I'm just an author. She said, no, you're more than author. You are a speaker to me. To God be the glory, I am available for speaking engagements for sure. I actually said, you know, you're right about that. You're right about that. And I will own it.

So anybody need me for our speaking of that engagement. Please don't hesitate to give me a call at any time, 478-18-48-401. I will happily come and speak at your engagement to tell my... And on that note, though, I want you to give a place where people can contact you so I can put it in the write-up, of course, but I want people to know where they can contact you and they can get your book off of Amazon, of course. Is it anywhere else other than Amazon? It's only on Amazon.

So I'm going to go ahead and say, so you can actually contact me on social media, Andrea Bridges on social media, okay, Andrea Bridges. You'll see me with the book in my hand on my page. You can contact me there. There's a lot of things that I have going on right now in my, my life. Again, this book is on Amazon. You can get the digital version of it or you can get it on sale. The digital version is on sale right now. So if you want to just get an electronic copy, you can do that at Amazon. Andrea Mohammed. Andrea Muhammad, I lost my voice. It's there.

I have reestablished my tax preparation business. So if you want to tap in and get your taxes done, AB Consulting and Tax Pro is back alive as AB Consulting and Business. solutions, okay? AB Consulting and Business Solutions is 10 of us. We'll be more than happy to get you on board and get your business set up properly and prepared properly as well. So I am here for that. You can contact me again at 478-718-4001 or Amy Consultation and Tax Pros on social media, A.B. Consultant and Taxpros at gmail.com.

Woo! That's a lot. I'm going to put it in the write-up. But part two, we're going to speak about, because we're not, we're not done with you. It's not done with Andrew Bridges yet, y'all.

I mean, I'm sitting here. I can just sit here and just listen to her. She can read a paper, a book, a paper, which you know of a potato, a potato bag a paper bag and I'd be sitting here listening but we're not done

with Andrea Bridges she's going to come back for part too because and she just heard she got her own they got her own text business right on tax business she has their own tech

consulting business and she just got several several more things she got to talk about so unfortunately we and put it all here, but, hey, she's coming back for part two. I can't wait for you to call me

and let me know you're ready, so I will be here for you. Oh, thank you so much. I so enjoy it so much. I like that. I cannot explain how much I enjoyed listening to you. I remember Laura used to just, my sister

Laura, she used to just read. I have her read to me all the time. She used to read. I just, that they don't listen to her because he was good. Sitting here listening to you, I can tell you some kind of speaker. I don't know what kind, but you are. Well, I'm claiming that.

He's claiming it, and I receive it in the name of the Holy Father himself, so I've received that. And you're good. That's the thing. You're really good. I mean, you were explaining all of these different things, and I'm like, wow. And you went to that

daily thing over there, and And it was just perfect. He was just starting talking about different stuff. I was like, oh, my God. So I really appreciate you coming on this show. Oh, my God. Thank you so much. Thank you.

Thank you for having me. Thank you so much. Thank you. And we're going to definitely have you on a part to within a week, because we didn't let it go too long. So within a week, we'll try to have you back on here to talk about your business, the other businesses and stuff. But again, we thank you.

And I thank you all for your time, for listening to. to Andrea Mohamed talk about her book. I lost my voice. And again, it's over at Amazon. When I tell you this, a good book, once you start reading it, all you've got to do is just start.

Just start reading it because you cannot put it down. It's one of those kinds of books like, okay, what's on the next page with Nick, you know? So check it out. And when you do check it out, support her. Give her a review. Five stars. If I can give more stars, I would be given more stars. But the book is excellent. It's like it should be a bestseller. It is so good. It's not too long. It is beautiful. And again, thank you so much, Tans for you. You're the best.

Thank you. Have a wonderful day. Have a wonderful day, everyone. Thank you. We're going to stay later. So thanks again. and we will see you in podcast land because this would be out and everyone would get a chance to hear it shortly. Thank you. Thank you. Okay, that concludes another great podcast. Thank you so much for joining me for Regina Soaring Audio Series.

If you'd like to be a part of this series, please send it email at sworeenugina at gmail.com. I want to thank all of my wonderful friends, fans, and guests for being a part of this show. Most of all, I'd like to thank the Lord. Until the next time, take care of yourself and be safe. You know,