The I Love CVille Show With Jerry Miller! - Berlinda Mills Joined Marc Hunt Live On “A Life, Unedited” On The I Love CVille Network!

Episode Date: May 20, 2026

Berlinda Mills, Mother, Daughter, Advocate, joined Marc Hunt live on A Life, Unedited! A Life, Unedited airs live Wednesday from 10:15 pm – 11:00 am on The I Love CVille Network. “A Life, Unedited” is presented by Martha Jefferson House.

Good morning. My name is Mark Hunt, and this is a life unedited. In this podcast, I get to sit down with remarkable people to hear their life stories and their perspectives without filters of hindsight. Today, I am so incredibly honored to have Berlinda Mills. Berlinda Mills. Her story has been shaped by faith, family, struggle, and the decision to keep showing up for others, even through unimaginable loss. Berlinda, thank you so much for being here. Thank you for having me. Burlinda, you grew up in Esmont.

In the 1950s, you were born in the early 1950s. What did childhood feel like? Wow. Childhood, you know, firstborn, spoiled a lot. Mom, grandmother, dad, no, granddad. But it was good. Quiet. I lived in a very small community, Esmont. It was just a nice, quiet community to grow up in.

Being the only child, I didn't know what it would be like to be challenging, but I had a couple of cousins that we hung around together. I just did fun things, but it was fun. Then you had three brothers? I have three brothers. I'm the only girl. Only girl. I'm sure you were spoiled.

Yeah. very much. What were some of the life lessons you were taught early on? Well, with my mom, she taught me values, basically to back it up, just the foundation of how to be a little girl growing into a young lady. And I would always say, just to skip over a little bit, you know, she would say any girl could be a woman, but not every woman can be a lady. So she groomed me to become a young lady. And growing up in my dad was a minister,

so I didn't have a lot of choices. It wasn't a lot of fun being a preacher's kid. But that was my foundation. My mom was a strong. My mom passed last July. She was a strong woman, very strong, very outspoken. Had a lot of values in the home, things to appreciate, to learn, to grow into,

and just watching her teach me how to do particular things, learn responsibilities, independent. And I'd like to think I'm a very independent person. I would agree. You grew up in Esmont. Was there, were there other families? Extended families in Esmond as well? They were extended families.

In our community, so to say, not a cul-de-sac, but there are like seven houses of the Ward Luck family. So that pretty much aunts, cousins, all within that area, all related. Oh, wow. And actually, that's saying that road that I live on, Porter's Road, is all family. Wow. It later years became very diverse, but in my growing up years, you know, and with my grandmother, you know,

It was all one big family. Wow. Yeah. What kind of a way to grow up? Yeah, you know. And you learned a lot. What was your grandmother like? Wow.

She was like, you know, this is my first granddaughter. I'm going to spoil her. She nurtured me. Actually, I called my grandmother Big Mama. I didn't know how to cook, you know, a little bit after high school got married. What did I know about cooking? Although I saw my mom, she showed me. trained me, but my grandmother actually did it for me. So there was a lot of, a little setback that I enjoyed.

But she was more of a, she was my learning tree. She also was my strength. And again, my grandmother, my grandfather, I called Big Dad, or we called Big Daddy. He was also a minister. So I had the circle of being not just the only girl there at the time. but it was a lot of grooming to do, you know. And I have to say today, mom dressed me nothing but dressy skirts. So as I got older, I chose to wear pants, jeans, you know, sort of got away from that. And my grandmother was very nurturing, as I said, but she also wanted to seek the girly part of me, girl to become that young lady.

So, yeah. Well, your mom was very, very regal to the moment she passed out. Yeah, tough lady in every way. And as I share, and I don't know if you met my mom. Mark, but yeah, she was very outspoken. That's right, yeah, the Lord. Duh, yeah, the laurels. But, you know, she was outspoken.

And she just, and I have to say, that part of her strength rubbed off on me, and I always used the expression. I shoot straight from the hip in an honest way. And I always say, God is not finished with me yet, so, but I'm still learning. So, but grandmother did a really, she did a really growing strengthening part in my life as well my mom. Yeah. As a young teen, there was a lot going on in the United States culturally. The Vietnam War kind of was hitting its stride in your early early adolescence. And then when you were a teenager, it was full-blown. Yeah. The civil rights movement was changing the trajectory

of the U.S. culture, fortunately. But there was a lot of resistance, obviously. And I'm sure there was a lot of resistance around here. Yeah. In Virginia, you were, you know, just outside of Charlottesville, but it was rural. What was that like? Were you aware of everything that was going on? You know, Mark, I, my dad being a minister, he traveled a lot around the world, Europe, Africa.

I didn't really know segregation. I knew I went to a segregated school, Jackson P. Burley, high school. I knew that. And I do remember going to doctor's appointments. I did see color drinking water, color bathrooms. I didn't really understand it. And the way mom explained it to me, it never filtered what it was all about. So that social movement really didn't enact in me at the time.

But as I got older to see what proper. reconstruction that would be getting out of desegregation get out of segregation. It was interesting because when I think Jackson P. Burley

left segregation and we went into Aramal High School. That was my first year in high school being among a group of black and whites together. Again, that really didn't make a difference because the churches that I went to, they were all diverse. There were people of all color, culture, nationalities.

Surrogation, discrimination didn't really bother me until my children went to school. That's when I became more aware, listening to them, listened to the council telling them what they could and couldn't do, determination, and we taught that in our children. No one can tell you what type of future you need to be. You know what you want to be. So that social world that I was growing into became interesting during that time of raising my children.

And I just, and I look at then, I look at the past, look at then, and I look at present. And African Americans or people of color have come a distance, a good distance. You hear the same, we've come a long ways, baby. Maybe. To where we're, to where we are being taken. back, trying to be taken back to it. But we are a group of strong

people, and our strength comes from, and I didn't just have my mom and my grandmother. I had other individuals, older, former school teacher. They were part of my life to build my strength during this social movement of coming out of segregation.

So, we could sit here forever, Mark, tell you, I could tell you many things, but I saw segregation, discrimination, and raising my children. I don't know if I'm answering the question correctly or not, but yeah. So I'm sure, I'm sure, yeah, as a father, I would understand that completely. You're all of a sudden, I'm hyper aware of everything and everyone around your child.

But I really like the point you just made is that your family is so structured and insulated that you didn't even feel the ramifications of it. That's incredible. Yeah, very structured. Yeah. So. Do you remember any change? changes like social age happening as you're becoming an older teen, you know, as a result of the in my teen years? In my teen years? I mean, obviously the desegregation in school, when you were in high school, I wanted to ask you, did you encounter, you know, any discrimination or?

Yeah, I did among some of my teachers, my goddess counselor. You know, I wanted to be a PE teacher. She says, no, you don't want to be a P.E. teacher. You want to be a nurse. And I'm thinking to myself, no, that's not what I want to be. So, I mean, I saw those changes. There were a few teachers that were, I mean, you could tell they went too bothered about teaching African-Americans. I mean, I felt that.

And, I mean, I just dealt with it. We had our own crowd, the group that came from Burley, you know, into my high school, we were mostly in classes together. So we sort of hung together and did things together. But were any of the kids open or tried to make friends with you all? There was some who made friends with us. And during that time going into our high school was a year Martin Luther King was assassinated. So that was like really challenging.

And of course, being structured, going to school, some blacks didn't go to school that day. And some walked. And in my mind I'm thinking, should I walk? I have to go back home. Being structured, I knew better. So that was the respect I gave, not just myself and my family, but the school, even though a lot of blacks walk, because they didn't know. I mean, they were doing what they heard.

I did what I felt was right. And they felt that was right to march to leave school. But, yeah, there were a lot of students that, white students, that engaged with us, became best friends with quite a few. Yeah. And I'm an all-around person. I don't. And as I said, I didn't see color growing up later.

You know, I saw color with my children. But doing that, I didn't really see color. They were just like people like me, different color, yeah. But we're all human. Pinch me, I feel, you know. That's beautiful. Well, then you eventually became a mother? I became my mother, yes, yes.

And at that time, I was in nursing school. You know, had problems with pregnancy. I didn't finish the nursing school. So I raised my son, and I first was a boy, and my husband was a masonry. That was his skill. But yeah, and then getting involved, my mom, to go back to my mom, my mom became the first African-American,

she was a manager, management. She was the first African-American person to work at a school, integrated school. So she started there following her children through education. Actually, she followed us all the way through. She was the cafeteria manager. I'm sorry. Actually, she followed us all the way through high school.

But that's where I got my start. So when my son started school, I started volunteering, became a volunteer head coordinator, became president of the PTO. As I said, saw all three of my kids, son and two daughters, through all the way to high schools. My mom saw us. And then at some point in my life, at some point,

you know, driving to and fro on 64, I would always say, I'm going to PBCC one day. I'm going to be a teacher, despite Ms. Beard was the counselor's name. I would say that for like two or three years. And then the principal Gerald Terrell said, Mrs. Mills, why are you doing this? And I'm like, why am I doing what?

why don't you go back to school to become a teacher? I hadn't really thought about it until after he put that in me. So in my traveling back and forth, I thought, huh. So my moment came, that following fall, I went back part-time. And I became a school teacher, you know. And that's how I raised my son to be there for him. I saw all the things in school that parents don't see I saw. And the teachers were aware of me.

My youngest daughter was my child. She stayed in trouble. And if I saw her or the oldest daughter out in the hall, the teachers knew I wasn't going to say anything. Because, you know, parents feel to realize that how your children are at home, that's the way they're going to be at home mischievously. So I not only followed him, as I keep saying, my son, I followed all three of my kids through. And I got that stress from my mom to be there for my kids in the educational form. Wow. Yeah.

That's incredible. Where was Glenn in the line? Say that again. was Glenn, was she the second? Glenda was the baby. The baby. The baby. My baby, yes.

Yeah. So. So that's incredible. And I kind of wanted to talk a little bit about Plano. Okay. That's okay with you. Sure. A couple years ago.

Two years ago, June 20th. June 20th. June 20. 20, 5. 24. I lost her. 7.30 p.m. Yeah, I lost my baby girl.

And it was, she wasn't, she didn't show any sign of being sick at all. That Father's Day, we were all at my brother's house. And we were all fine. She got sick that Monday night. She went into the hospital, severe pain. They had her hooked up to all kinds. Actually, it was 20 monitor. It was 24.

And that third day, Tuesday, she went in, Tuesday morning, Thursday morning she passed. It was pancreatic. But it was just, that was my baby. And it's hard because we didn't anticipate that. But she was totally the chip off of her mom's block. She was one of the most outspoken of my three children. My son is the character of his dad. A little bit of me.

My middle daughter, Nanyel is totally her dad. Glenna was totally her mom. But she loved what she did. She was a CNA, colonnade, and at the laurels. And I didn't realize how many people she had touched until her funeral.

It was standing in Ramon. Yeah, it was like, I didn't see it. And even after the fact, and then I realized when people were talking, telling me like, wow. When I did my student teaching, you know, as a teacher, she was even there. I'm like, wow, how long ago was that when I did my student teaching at Agner Herd? But Glenda was, she was unique in so many ways. Her personality, straightforward, shot

straight from the hip. But she loved. She cared. They loved her. The nursing home, she would called me in the morning, she would tell me about her patience, the things they did, the things they said, but some of them would wait for her when they knew was her shower day, they knew she was going to give it to her. But she just had a love. She was just a caring person. She was my sweetheart. She was my baby. And it took a while, and it's still taking some time to get over that loss. I don't think you ever get over it. I can't imagine that you did. I can't imagine. I couldn't then, and now I'm trying to imagine her not being here. It's a big void in our lives.

And I'm raising our baby girl, her daughter, her youngest daughter, she has two older boys. And it's a joy because when you see Zanaia is her baby, was her baby. When you see the two, it was like mother and daughter, they looked at these scrapbooks and it's like, which one is going? You know, so, but yeah, we have so many memories of my baby, you know, and yeah. I knew her for a brief time. She definitely made an impression immediately, and she obviously, is so excited. I'm so kind. Yeah.

I wanted to say this about you just because it's so significant and it will always resonate with me. So I went to your home after the funeral and everybody was there of your close circle and I I mean, I felt so honored just to be there. But before anybody else ate, you made me a plate. Sure do you. Some random white dude from California. You just lost your daughter.

And you thought about me. And it just, it just, I was floored. I was just blown away. You were, you know, I couldn't even articulate or, you know, process it really until later. I was just like, I just couldn't really understand. But you're just a, that's who you are. That's who I am, Mark. And I have to say, Mark, that's who you are as well.

Oh. Because you interact with my aunt, and she fell in love with you right away. My Aunt Ruth. And Glennon spoke highly of you. But to fix you that plate, that was love. That was love. That was love. I wanted, and we call you our mark.

You treat me like family. Your family. Yeah, your family. I feel the same. And family did. they have all kinds of color in that family. I have Indian, Asian, African American, white. You know, you're no different.

Well, one of my brothers did a 93 and me, and we came back 98% European. I'm like, you kind of get any wider than that. So I appreciate it. Yeah. But it was just a love mark. We just love you so much. And we do consider you still even that, consider you part of our family. Because the love that I saw when I would visit my eyes.

aunt, I didn't just see it with her. You were a man of patience. Bless your heart. But to have the kind of patience, to do what you're doing, you have to have patience to work with the elderly. And that's a gift and it's a blessing as well. Well, it's the greatest blessing. So, you know, how in that route? So it was COVID times. I had just gotten into health care. And so, you know, I had gotten COVID. It was right when, you know, first it was gotten really bad. So I was in the house. asthma suit so you could still work on the COVID unit so Ruth had COVID as well right so I went in a room and we you know she I introduced myself obviously she could tell she could see was my eyes and she asked me if there was somebody that could cut her toenails I'll cut your toenails so we got some toenail flippers I came back

I shut the door I was like we both have COVID you might have to take this off right got out of that I was like all sweaty. Right. Anyways, yeah, her two notes have been neglected for a while. And so, you know, we sat there and she had me laughing. And we've been just such good friends. She's taking you on as one of her, her nephew. Yeah.

And I just want to say thank you for that, Mark. Thank you for it then and thank you for it now. Because you still have that love. And I just, when we see each other, we just embrace. And that's what the world needs today, which there is. love out there and it's more love than it is, I'm going to say dislike and some hate. But hopefully that will overrule one day. The hate is quite too much attention.

Yes, it's just, it's a lot of energy to hate, you know. Well, you've also been a very big advocate in the community, in the surrounding communities for low-income families. How did you get into that? Well, I taught for nine years as a teacher, my major sociology. And my last year teaching Jackson P. Burley Middle School, the principal and I had become close. And he suggested I get into my field. So I thought, hmm. And then I got invitation from MACA to get in that application, yada, yada.

So I put an application from MACA got it as an advocate slash counselor. And when I got in, we each had every year. For seven years, we had 40 families every year. What's MACA? a Maka Head Start, Maka Monticello area community action. And so off Park Street was our building. I became involved. There were six advocates.

We all had our cubicles in an area. And I served the families. Let me just back up a little bit. I first started coming out of Murray Baldwin as a teen. I was the coordinator of teen site. and what that would do would provide homes for the homeless and they would call me on the Alicia Lugo

they would call and said Ms. Mills we have families in the Salvation Army they need homes, they need jobs, they need new beginnings. And I would always go in, pick them up and I would always pray about it. I didn't know the Lord then as I do now, but God opened doors for these families

and to make that story short, I had a mother come in with three children, she was pregnant with her four. And I found a beautiful home for her. But I told that she was straight from the hip. And I got to know the young lady. She didn't have family. And I told her that when she had the fourth baby,

she was on the tie cut and burn her tubes. This is it. You need to begin a new life. And a little girl, the young girl, her daughter was born, and the daughter eventually became our babysitter. for our grandchildren, you know. So that was getting her out of the poverty, and she's doing well in Northern Virginia.

But to get back to Maka, many of these families in the Head Stop Program. I was in Fluvana and Baker Butler and Nelson County. Those were my three sites. They were really having rough times. They were in homes, projects. And I guess when the homes were being built during all of this time of fair housing,

you know and for years I never knew what Hardy Drive was passed by it every day that was one of my sites and they would transit they would commute not commute they were bust yeah and so being part of that city versus the county areas I was in I found homes they got education some of them got cars some of them had so many families living in their homes together. I just wanted to see them. I mean, I followed them through workshops.

Some of them had mental problems, mental, yeah, mentally, mental issues. I just, I mean, I'm all over the place, Mark, but working with low income was a gift to me. From First Street to Orangedale to

the area that I was just sharing. I never knew that life. I never knew people lived like that. I was sheltered in many ways to not see that, and I was blessed. So part of me was blessing them, and I was more like a mom, because I would call them,

or they would call me 1 and 2 o'clock in the morning. I would check on them on weekends to make sure things were all right. CNA, and A. some turned out to be met tax. I mean, I did what, and that was my gift. My blessing to them was

to recreate a new beginning, and I did. So, working in those low-income families, I had some successes. And when I went back to school to become a teacher, one of my clients was one of my theses that I wrote about. And to this

day, I just I feel blessed to know this group of people. to know, but they had to want to move forward. I couldn't push them, but to be blessed, to share a blessing with them that I had, and I didn't know really at the time as I shared the Lord in my life at the time. But they were blessed beyond means, and I look at them today. I'm sure you showed them that it was possible.

It was possible. Anything's possible. And I don't always talk about the Lord because I don't know the feel of people. but I would tell them, you know, whatever you do, wherever you go, put God first. So this is your new beginning. This is your new start. This is your X, Y, Z. It's up to you to finish it.

And I have to admit, some of them have done very well. And it's not because of me. It's the choice that they made to move forward. And I'm just thankful to be a part of their lives. And sometimes they didn't have food. Sometimes, Mark, you had to stoop to their lives. level of luck, stooped at that level to see the love that I had for them. Because some of these homes that I went in, it was like, you know, it was interesting. But I didn't let, I couldn't

let that bother me. I didn't want them to think I thought I was better than there. And I, but they respect me. And today, a lot of them still call Ms. Meals, you know? And I, and I serve Mac a Head Start for seven years, and I went into the Elk Hill program. One thing about working with these programs, you deal mostly with the parents, but when Elk Hill program,

you have to deal with the children. Well, how do you deal with the children without involving the parents? And I got involved with the parents, gave some of them a head start. That was at Berlin Moran, is where I did that lot of part of me, proud to me retiring. So that was part of me. That's who I was. And they were also part of the low-income area of life.

But some of them have moved up and moved out and off of Social Security. And that's a blessing, you know? So, yeah. To be independent to provide for your family on your own. Yeah. So I had my dream. They were dreaming. And some of those dreams, some of them have really moved forward. And I'm just proud of them. I see them sometimes. I don't know what you call it, age. It's like, hi, Mrs. Miner. is and I'm thinking, who's that? And then it'll dawn on me who it is. But that was a gift and a blessing to me to be there.

And as I said, I still am with many. They still call me. Students, when I taught in Buckingham, a couple of them still hang out in Ms. Mills' house, you know? But I love it. That's incredible. Well, you haven't slowed down in retirement at all. No, I have not.

Still remain the older sister role and taking care of all the family and everybody. And I watched from a distance. in amazement and all the respect. I'm always impressed by all that you do for your family. And that's something that mom and my grandmother would have done. It's the legacy they left

for us. You know, and we just go from there. Yeah. Well, what's next? Well, I am very involved in politics. I think I'm too political. However,

in 2008, prior to Obama being elected president. My aunt Rose and Uncle Morris, this is when I got involved in 2008. My uncle Morris would say, Burlinda, Barack Obama is going to be the next president. I'm like, how do you know that?

So from there, with him becoming president, I've followed, I mean, from the Democrat to the Republican, I've listened to them all. I can just hear them and know who they are when they're talking. And where we are now, Mark, I am not very happy. I don't know who he is. I don't know anyone for being that party.

I've been both, you know. But, and we talked earlier about hate. How do you hate? How do you want to take someone back? Where are you taking me to? This is where I was born, you know? And making hate, like, just, you know, part of everyday life now.

You know? It's almost like you hate so much that you take from those of need. I think about the students who are graduating from colleges. What do they have? What dreams do they have that's hung up right now

because there's a lot of political stuff? I look at the health care, daycare, you look at food, you look at gas, you look at energy, look at all of these things that are being taken away from our people. But yet, they're up here, not caring about anyone down here.

And this is not about the Republican Party, it's this party, you know. But I just believe in going out there and advocating, I mean, I even talk, going through the grocery lines or, you know, I'm just me, you know. And when Camilla Harris was running for president, of course, we all thought she was going to win. I mean, she even thought she was going to win. And I'm thinking to myself, you know, I don't want to say too much, but all of these people who chose not to vote for her,

if you didn't want to vote for her, fine. But you voted for a second turn for Trump. And the bottom line is the man told you who he said, who he was. He told you what he was going to do. Did I miss something? So this is where me as an advocate comes in. If you're going to talk to me about politics,

if you didn't vote, I don't want to care. I don't care. Don't talk to me. I don't care whether you're a Republican or Democrat or independent. If you can't listen, do your research, learn what you hear instead of taking someone's word, step into facts and not, things hearsay. That's a weakness. So I would tell young people of all color, you know, especially young black men, oh, my folks is not going to count. And so I would, you know, I'd be me.

You know, I shoot off the sleeve. And they're like, oh, okay, Ms. Mills, I see where you are. No, you don't. Because Kamala laws, Trump's back in and look at what he's doing. I said, it's your fault. He's accelerated from the first time. Yeah, you know. And my brothers are all Republicans. Yeah. I give him a hard time, so do their wives. They're probably old-school Republican, prior to Trump.

And it is an old school because even though they don't agree because they're old-school, they're going to vote. And that's sad. It's okay to step outside the box. Stop not taking you out of the box, but your choice. you know, so. But yes, I'm on the role, and I work a little bit with, I'm in the process of working with NWACP.

I even blame them a little bit. Like, duh, you know, you're representing. Who are you representing? Everybody's just in shock, so. Shock, they need to get out of shock. Come on, now, you know, because, well, you know, Mark, it's not a shock. Because they knew what was going on.

He said I would be dictator day one. Well, duh. You can't even take care of his own nation. He's pocketing his own money. If Obama did that or Biden did that, you could you imagine? Come on. Justice. But it's a cult.

You know, it's a Jim Jones. Don't drink the Kool-Aid. So, but Mark, I don't know if I answered all the questions, but I... And I just have to say, you're an incredible human being, and I'm so honored that you agree to come on here.

Your life is so significant and it's such so many people. Really has. I mean, everybody that you see on a day-to-day basis, you know, you affect. But I can only imagine the people that I have no idea. Well, I love what I do, and I feel blessed. Now that God is stronger in me now, it's a little bit more. I've learned how to not shoot so much from the hip.

And it wasn't really negative, but just I can do it a little bit better now. I'm just blessed. And I'm just thankful for where I am. I'm thankful who I am and I would always tell who I come in contact with know who you are until you know who you are you're not going to know what you want

where you want to go how you want to be you know once you know who you are that's your beginning that's your journey and life is a journey you know well my final question I ask everyone

years from now when you are gone what do you hope your children grandchildren and great-grandchildren remember about you or know about you. I hope they will know my strengths and they will know what my weaknesses was will be their strength

and not their weaknesses because, you know, be better organized. I just want to leave that legacy of just love. Know who you are. And let God take you the rest of the way because only he can make those steps and make those steps right. He will order those steps. I want them to recognize.

I want them to know that. It is not their steps. It is all about God going before them and all that they do. And I have a great, great grandson, and he's so precious. So even he will learn from his father, you know. But that's the gift I lived. I would like to leave to them. Thank you.

You truly embody the spirit of Jesus Christ. I say that with all sincerity, and I appreciate you so much. Thank you so much for having me, Mark. Thank you. My name is Mark Hunt. This is a life unedited, a podcast where I get to sit down with incredible people, such as Belinda. Thanks. Thank you.

Thank you. So you still have to look.