Hey There,  

Thank you for joining me on the podcast Of Course.. They Make Me Crazy!  

I’m April Norris.  

Coming up on June 12th will be the one-year anniversary of this podcast. That’s crazy to me! Strangely, June 12th will also be the 5th anniversary of my mom, Joni’s death, which is also crazy to me!

It’s crazy to me because I don’t remember launching this podcast specifically on that date on purpose. So, I messaged my sister, Amanda to see if she remembers us doing that on purpose or if it’s just a coincidence. She doesn’t remember either.  Good God!  It’s only been one-year and we can’t remember.

When I first started this, she was on helping me out by sharing our family stories too.  When I got the nudge in my soul to start this podcast, I called her and said, “Hey, I have all these little stories written down about our crazy family stories. I’m starting a podcast and you’re going to be my sidekick. Don’t worry, I’ll do all the work. You come along and add perspective and what you remember. And we’re recording in 2 days.”

She was like, ok.  That was a big deal because Amanda is shy. We’re 10 years apart and total opposites.  She had fun though.  We live in different time zones and have different schedules, so I went solo.  

Anyway, seeing that the podcast launch date is also the date of my mom’s death sort of creeped me out a bit. In a good way! The universe works in mysterious way.  

Many of you already know that I started this podcast in my mom’s honor.  She grew up with an alcoholic dad who left his six kids and wife for a man he met at a nudist beach. Her mom lost it after that and went down a dark path of popping pills. My mom got pregnant with me at 15.5 years old with a physically abusive boyfriend. And the doctor that delivered me essentially became her drug dealer.  He gave her almost every addictive narcotic on the market to help her deal.   

With all that, she was an amazing mom.  But that trauma caught up with her.  Her mind and body broke down. She was diagnosed with bipolar. She stopped taking care of herself. The only thing she cared about was taking pills in hopes of not feeling the pain and sadness as much.  

I felt her story needed to be told.  And, that my story growing up with her needed to be told too. Hoping our stories resonate with you and in some strange way help you.           

Have you seen the movie, Hillbilly Elegy?  It’s based off of J.D. Vance’s memoir. It’s about the hard times of him growi