It's All About Healing

From Meth to Mercy, with Timothy Blaine: Episode 361

• Robin Black

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What do you do when your world is shrinking to the next high and the next court date? Robin sits down with her uncle, author and YouTuber Timothy Blaine, for an unflinching, hope-forward story about meth addiction, San Quentin’s HIV unit, and the moment faith rerouted a life. Tim spent 17 years using and cycled through lockups 40 times. Then something shifted. Letters from family reached him. A quiet conviction took hold. He walked out determined never to return to drugs—and 25 years later, he hasn’t.

We explore why meth felt like relief during the terrifying early HIV years and how selling on the streets became survival when the system made freedom a moving target. Tim describes the violence that finally broke the spell, the strange calm of quarantine in a converted prison gym, and the first days of believing he could be more than a record of charges. That belief sparked a vocation. He wrote Meth Monster to tell the truth about addiction and deliverance, then built a bold fictional universe: the Love and Gospel Music series, weaving spirits, queer identity, and the gospel industry’s hidden tensions; Epiphany, a listener favorite; and The Label, a ghost story about legacy and the unseen. From there, the YouTube beef sector inspired three sharp murder mysteries—Murder in the Beef Sector, Deadly Wager, and Who Shot the Caller?—probing doxing, clout, and consequences. His recent book, The Battle, pits a relentless spirit against the fentanyl trade, asking hard questions about harm and justice.

Along the way, Tim shares the daily rhythms that keep him grounded: serving as an usher, caring for his dog, writing, and showing up online with humor and candor. The through-line is clear: healing didn’t erase the past; it reassigned its purpose. Whether you connect with the faith language or the craft, you’ll hear a roadmap for choosing life over numbness, community over isolation, and creation over despair.

If this story moved you, tap follow, share it with a friend who needs hope, and leave a review to help others find the show.

Be sure to visit my youtube channel, like and subscribe: It's All About Healing Podcast - YouTube

Website: https://www.itsallabouthealingpodcast.com 

If you're ready to talk, we're ready to listen! 

©2022 Soul Healer17:77, LLC. All Rights Reserved. Any copying of this poetry and audio in whole or part is prohibited. *I do not own the rights to the royalty free music*

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SPEAKER_01:

Welcome back, listeners. I'm Robin Black, and this is It's All About Healing Podcast. We have a very, very special guest with us today, Timothy Blaine, who is also my uncle. Uncle Tim. So I'm gonna give a second for him to introduce himself. Uncle Tim, go ahead.

SPEAKER_00:

Hello, people. My name is Timothy Blaine. I'm an author and also a YouTuber. Uh it's great to see you or be here with my niece.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. So, Uncle Tim, tell us a little bit about your books. Let's just kind of start off there.

SPEAKER_00:

Okay. So your your podcast is called The Healing?

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, it's all about healing.

SPEAKER_00:

Okay. Well, I'm a healed person.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

I wrote a book. It's called Meth Monster because I was a meth at addict for several years. 25 years ago, God delivered me. And shortly after that, I wrote I wrote a book about it, about what my deliverance was like.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

So tell go go a little bit further in the book because I remember that's kind of how I met you. My mom told me about you. And then we started writing letters to one another. And then shortly thereafter, I think that was when you wrote your book.

SPEAKER_00:

Right, right.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, that was the first one. I kept writing after that. I've written a total of nine books. I'm kind of stuck in the middle of a number 10.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

This is the only, you know, nonfiction book.

SPEAKER_01:

So, and then you said you were on meth for 25 years.

SPEAKER_00:

No, I was on meth for 17 years, and I've been clean from meth for 25 years.

SPEAKER_01:

For 25 years. Wow. So, what what got you into that in the first place, Uncle Tim?

SPEAKER_00:

What got me into the drugs?

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Well, that was a time I'm a person with HIV, and it was a very scary time for my community. And I think it was just a way of escaping because it was strange that I would start doing drugs right when I should have stopped doing everything, you know.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

This was back in the in the 80s. And I found escape in in that particular drug. That's what happened.

SPEAKER_01:

You found an escape in that drug?

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. Where did you like how did you what where did you get it from when you first started?

SPEAKER_00:

Meth? Yeah. Oh, I was already drinking. I I had been drinking for uh several years, maybe five or six years in Los Angeles. I considered myself an alcoholic then. And I kept hearing about, I was in AA meetings starting at 25 years old, and I kept hearing about this particular drug, right? And so when I had a relapse from Alcoholics Anonymous, first thing I did was try, I wanted to try that drug, you know. And somebody came up to me in a bar, offered it to me. I tried it, I liked it, and then I was stuck, you know, didn't take that long to get stuck on it. So I abandoned alcohol, and then that was in the next 17 years.

SPEAKER_01:

Okay, and then in the book Meth Monster, you also speak about your incarceration. Are you okay speaking about that?

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, I'm I'm okay speaking about everything.

SPEAKER_01:

Okay, okay. So tell us what how what made you go in? What did you go in for?

SPEAKER_00:

Okay, so when I first started doing the meth, the only way I knew to make any money, I thought I was 20, I was 28 years old by stealing. I was what they called a booster. I had worked my entire life until I found meth. Then I made my money as a booster, stealing from stores and returning items.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

So I went in and out of jail, I think around 30 times. I was just in and out, in and out, in and out of Los Angeles County jail, right?

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Eventually, of course, the courts are going to eventually say, no, you're a habitual criminal. And they sent me to prison for three years. And so I ended up in San Quentin State Prison. That's how I got to San Francisco. I lived in LA, but they sent me all the way up here. And I when I got out, I just stayed in San Francisco. I didn't go back to Los Angeles.

SPEAKER_01:

And you said San Quentin?

SPEAKER_00:

San Quentin. Yeah, so I was in prison 10 times. Uh when I when I got up to San Francisco, I immediately started selling drugs.

SPEAKER_02:

Right.

SPEAKER_00:

I I didn't want to go back to prison, so I figured I didn't want to steal anymore. And I lost this thunder. And so I started selling drugs. And that's why I just kept going back to prison every year for the next, what was it, for the next 10 years.

SPEAKER_01:

And San Quentin is a really bad prison, correct?

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, it's an old prison. It's one of the oldest prisons in California. San Quentin and Folsom. I went to San Quentin because that's where they had an HIV unit at. And that's where they sent us. When I got out, generally speaking, you get out of a California prison, they give you$200, what they call gate money, so you don't go out there and rob somebody or something in desperation. But they told me that I wouldn't be getting that because I since I was from Los Angeles, I could pick the money up when I got back to Los Angeles. So they gave me$100. That was only enough to get high, and that's what I did.

SPEAKER_01:

Wow. And you said in and out for 30 years.

SPEAKER_00:

So no, not 30 years.

SPEAKER_01:

I was in 30 times. Sorry, 30 times.

SPEAKER_00:

Of jail.

SPEAKER_01:

Right. Okay. Okay. Wow, Uncle Tim. So when you first started going in and out of jail, you were here in Indiana.

SPEAKER_00:

No, no, I didn't do anything uh nefarious in Indiana. This all started uh after I started doing drugs. So I didn't even do drugs for the first 10 years in in LA, somewhere like somewhere like that. Uh in Los Angeles, it came later on.

SPEAKER_01:

Okay.

SPEAKER_00:

But I went to jail in in LA.

SPEAKER_01:

And San Quentin, what is like some of the like, what is that a jail famous for? Like horrible things about it. So what is it?

SPEAKER_00:

Right. Well, it's not Alcatraz. We have another prison called Alcatraz here.

SPEAKER_01:

Right.

SPEAKER_00:

That was a federal prison. And San Quentin was the state prison version of that. Right. It was on also on a little island. I they only sent us there because that's the only place they housed people with HIV at the time. No one understood what that meant at that time. People were dying very suddenly.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

And uh we had to be quarantined. So they quarantined us in San Quentin in that what used to be the gym. San Quentin used to be a place where they trained people for, I don't know why, but they had a big gym there, and they were known for people having fights there with other prisons, kind of thing. So they converted all that into a unit for HIV people.

SPEAKER_01:

Okay, but you you weren't in on that. You didn't have to fight other people, did you?

SPEAKER_00:

No, no, no. Gym is the gym had gone, it had been converted into the laboratory.

SPEAKER_01:

Okay. And what was that? And what was that like for you being in there with with HIV and not really? Did you did you guys have medication? Like what was that like back then?

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, we had medication, but there really wasn't very much around at that time. I mean, there was AZT. We took you know what they gave us.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Somehow or other, I I never got really sick with HIV. But uh, we were we were definitely separated quarantined, so I didn't deal with any hardship because I was because I was that.

SPEAKER_01:

Okay, well, that's that's definitely a blessing.

SPEAKER_00:

Right.

SPEAKER_01:

And what was it like being in prison? Were you still doing drugs while you were in there? Were you trying to find ways like because you had to been going through detox as well, correct?

SPEAKER_00:

No, not from meth. Basically, you go to sleep on meth. So I had already been locked up for several months waiting to go to prison. So when I got there, there it was no withdrawal. There was never any real withdrawal from crystal meth. I mean, all these different drugs have uh different uh side effects or attributes. Detox was never one with with with with meth.

SPEAKER_01:

Okay.

unknown:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

But what made you get into it in the first place, Uncle Tim? Like were was it just hardship? Was it just life? Was it just pure pressure?

SPEAKER_00:

No, as I said, it it was I think it was attached to AIDS. There was an epidemic. I felt like our world was coming to an end. And I I chose that to escape, you know, it could have been any drug, it didn't have necessarily have to be math.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, okay.

SPEAKER_00:

But you don't when you're on drugs, you you don't really think about dying or or medications or or anything, really, not even rent. So it all becomes just about getting high.

SPEAKER_02:

Okay.

SPEAKER_00:

So that's a lot easier. People, I mean, it looks horrible when you look see it on the street and so forth, but it's actually easier because you're just living from hit to hit, and and that's really all you care about.

SPEAKER_01:

Wow. Okay. And so when we started writing when you were in prison, what what was that like for you when you first received my letter? Because I think I was 15 and my mom told me, Hey, this is your Uncle Tim. And then I just wrote you a letter.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, I remember I remembered our communication when I was, but I think I was at the tail end of getting high at that point.

SPEAKER_02:

Okay.

SPEAKER_00:

I I made up my mind. I started going to church, I became a new believer. No, that's when my battle kind of began. I think you and Gigi are are all the cousins.

SPEAKER_02:

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_00:

Right. I wrote both of your letters. Oh, yeah, because I uh my plan was to move forward without without going back to drugs. And it, as it turned out, it worked.

unknown:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

I turned my faith over to God and and he delivered me. That's my language. I mean, people have different kinds of language when dealing with drug addiction, ex-drug addiction. Some people say once a drug addict always, well, if I haven't done drugs in 25 years, I'm not calling myself a drug addict, you know.

SPEAKER_01:

Right.

SPEAKER_00:

But I just I consider myself to be delivered.

SPEAKER_01:

Absolutely. Oh, that's such a blessing. I love hearing that. So you said Gigi wrote you too?

SPEAKER_00:

I wrote him.

SPEAKER_01:

Oh, okay. Okay.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. And it's so funny because you you kind of sound like G. Or it's like I could tell G kind of gets his voice from us because talking to you, I can hear G, and then I can see Granny in you.

SPEAKER_00:

So it's just well, we had Christmas Eve together. You know, he lives here now.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, oh, you did. Oh my goodness, how is he?

SPEAKER_00:

He's great. He's he's done great. I think he's been on his job for 12 years now.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Got his own place. It's hard to get your own place here, get settled here, but he came and settled in really good.

SPEAKER_02:

That's good.

SPEAKER_01:

I know I need to get out there.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, at least to visit. Yeah, your mom, your mom was here a couple times.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, I know. I'm definitely coming out there next. So, Uncle Tim, tell us about some of your other books and what are those books about?

SPEAKER_00:

So, as I said, I became a new baby Christian. Yeah, I was very excited about my my newfound faith, and it was working for me, right? So, I wrote a second book, a novel called Love and Gospel Music. What's wrong with telling the damn truth? Yeah, that was my first novel. It was pretty big, that's my biggest book, actually. Yeah, but uh that was the coming of age story, right? There are some some of it reflects my own personal experience, but it's fiction, it's coming of age story, and then I became a writer. I wrote four books in that series, yeah. Love and gospel music. Then I have one called Epiphany. Most people consider this to be my best book. Okay, Epiphany is also a spiritual book. Then I wrote Muse, Muse. That was also they're all spiritual books. It's a series, and the last one in that series was called The Label, which is a ghost story.

SPEAKER_01:

Oh, a ghost story. What is what do you mean by a ghost story?

SPEAKER_00:

Well, the it's also the whole series is based on a record company, a gospel record company, and it explores uh the relationship between gay men and the music industry, gospel music industry, because there are a whole lot of people in there. When I got clean and I got out and started going to church and so forth, I realized that there was a tremendous amount of people in gospel music. Yeah, uh that's kind of how I started the story, the series. Okay, it ended up it it ended up in the label because the the record company that they started was actually haunted deals with spirits. All my books were basically deal with spirits, yeah. So after that one, after that series, what I do now, my occupation now is I'm a YouTuber. I have a YouTube channel. I've got I think 25 or 3,000 videos on YouTube, correct? Wow, and the sector where I communicate is called the beef sector, right? So I wrote a new series, it's called Murder in the Beef Sector. That was the first one, and then Deadly Wager, and then the last one in that series was Who Shot the Caller?

SPEAKER_01:

Wow, that's a powerful title, right?

SPEAKER_00:

Well, they're they explore people doxing people, and apparently they just doxed the wrong person and they ended up. These are all murder mysteries, uh, so it's totally fiction. Yeah, yeah. I did I did one other book. What's the last one? The last book I did just recently, I think last year. The battle. Battle starts with that experience with San Quentin State Prison and getting out the first time, but it's basically about spirit, a spirit battling with fentanyl makers. Wow. He basically the spirit that's killing all the drug dealers.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

So it's quite an experience. I I got stuck. I was writing a sequel to that book, and I kind of got writer's block. I mean, I've gotten like three quarters of the way through, and I haven't been able to go back over there on that one. So sometimes I'll just stop and then sometimes it'll come back and sometimes it won't. So we'll see. I'm hoping that I'll get inspired to do something else.

SPEAKER_01:

Well, yeah. So you're not just a YouTuber, you're you're an author. So that's pretty huge.

SPEAKER_02:

That is huge.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. So I'm what I guess you would call retired person. In other words, I don't work, so I have a lot of time on my hands. And when you do retire, you you you find things to do. You know, yeah. How long have you had your channel?

SPEAKER_01:

I just I've been podcasting, it'll be four years in June, June of next year.

SPEAKER_00:

Okay, okay. Yeah, but are you on YouTube?

SPEAKER_01:

I am, but I'm not, I'm just now starting to like really pick it up and really get into it because I I wasn't really into it for a while. So that's fairly new, it's been about a month.

SPEAKER_00:

Oh, okay, okay. I'll look you up.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, yeah, definitely look me up and subscribe. I gotta look you up as well. Because I didn't know that you had your own YouTube channel.

SPEAKER_00:

Oh, yeah, I've had one for I think nine years.

SPEAKER_01:

Oh my goodness. Yeah, I definitely did not know that. I'm sorry, Uncle Tim. But it's like I said, like you said, it's such a blessing. So your deliverance is kind of what led you to start writing and stuff as well.

SPEAKER_00:

Right, right. I was in like a recovery halfway house kind of thing. Uh and one morning I just woke up and the spirit, what I call people think different ways about how things come to you. But for me, the spirit told me to just go to my computer, turn it on, and write. So I had never even thought about writing up until that day. Yeah, and I just sat there and I just started, and then it all it all flowed there.

SPEAKER_01:

That's amazing. That's kind of what happened with me. My deliverance was just to start just spoken word poetry, just uh just start talking, start saying it. And then I wrote my book based off of my poetry, so yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Oh, okay. I have your book here. Now I haven't read them. I have so many that I haven't read. Yeah, I haven't. I have your book.

SPEAKER_02:

You have my book, yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

In my Kindle, all my books are in my Kindle.

SPEAKER_02:

What? Thank you.

SPEAKER_00:

We have to open up our books.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, we do, Uncle Tim. Oh my gosh, it's just oh, this is just such a blessing. This is just making my day being able to talk to you and see you because I don't get to see you. But I it just definitely reminds me of when you were here and how much fun that was.

SPEAKER_00:

Right, right. It's good to I'm glad Gigi's here because that's my exposure to family, finally, over 40 years, you know, in California.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, where is he tonight? Is he just doing his is he working?

SPEAKER_00:

Oh, I don't know. I assuming he's working. I know he was off Christmas and Christmas Eve. Yeah, but he lives about maybe three miles away from me.

SPEAKER_01:

Oh, okay, so he's not too far.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, yeah, yeah. We see each other mostly on holidays, but we see each other every two or three weeks.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. But how have you been just just ever since you've been delivered? Just what is your daily life like?

SPEAKER_00:

Well, I'm involved with my church, I'm involved with my writing, YouTube. It's kind of that. I have a dog, so he keeps me busy. Squeenie. Let me show you. Give me your boy. Oh, there he is.

SPEAKER_02:

Hi, hello Robin.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, he keeps me busy.

SPEAKER_02:

Well, that's good.

SPEAKER_00:

I don't know how people have time to work. It seems like you just find ways to fill it up, you know.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, it it's it's not fun.

SPEAKER_00:

But you have to do your time, you know. I'm on social security, so my time, my number came up. I'm 65. So actually, I'm 68. I'm about to be 68.

SPEAKER_01:

So oh, okay. I didn't know you were that much older than my mom.

SPEAKER_00:

Okay, yeah. Yeah, your mom was the baby of the family.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, that is too funny. It's just so funny, just because I could just see my mom and you, I can see Ani Bond, I can see G. It's just like it's just so amazing when you never really get to see family, and now seeing you now is just is I'm just in awe over here right now.

SPEAKER_00:

Right, right.

SPEAKER_01:

What else was I gonna say now? But so on your on your journey, on this on this spiritual journey, what else have you kind of gained from all the writing, all the drugs? Like, what's the number one thing that you gain that you can kind of tell the listeners on how to just definitely go to God?

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, yeah, to believe, to have faith. Yeah, I'm not a particularly religious person. I don't go to my church for them to tell me what to do and things like that. But I have been a member of my church for almost the day since I left prison. So it's been 25 years as well. And I'm an usher there. So I'm involved in my community in that way. But my relationship started when I say Christ, when Christ delivered me from Backerville State Prison, which is another prison.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah. Right.

SPEAKER_00:

When I left that prison, I knew I've never used drugs again. And I knew that while I was still in there. You know, when I was released, first thing I did was call our grandmother. Grandmother, your great grandmother, I guess.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

I called her. I hadn't talked to her in 17 years. But somehow or other I knew caller. And we start talking regularly.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. Wow. Okay. I didn't know that. That's so good.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, it's annoying, it's annoying kind of thing.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, you talked to great grandmother. Oh my goodness. That is just oh my gosh. And then so being in and out of prison for 10 years, what kept causing you to go back? Just stealing drugs.

SPEAKER_00:

Selling drugs. They don't allow that.

SPEAKER_01:

They're selling the drugs. Okay.

SPEAKER_00:

So I have some thoughts about selling drugs. I mean, most people will say, Oh my god, you're a drug dealer. Oh, you're killing people. Oh, yeah. No, honey, if you're in that life, then you can't buy drugs at Walgreens, right? We sold drugs to each other. Because I was an addict and I had been for several years. Eventually I ended up selling drugs. That was my community. No matter what you think about the community, it still was a community. It was a group of people. And uh yeah, so I mean, I wasn't living on the streets or anything like that. My partner had passed in Los Angeles right before I went to the last time. So I always lived in him after I started using dope. Now I had no no other no resources, period. So I had to sell drugs in order to survive.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

That's why I kept going back. It's basically, you know, you you you get sentenced, I got sentenced to three years, and then you have what they call a tail. So you have you're on parole for three years after you get out. So basically, you never get off of it if you're in that life. I mean, it's it's three years. So anytime they see you or have an encounter with you, they can arrest you again.

SPEAKER_01:

Okay, and that's kind of basically what happened with you.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, read the myth, read the meth monster, it tells the whole thing.

SPEAKER_01:

I know I did, I read it a long time ago, but now I don't remember it. So I have to read it over again. Yeah, what what was your thought process when that kept happening? Were you just like, dang, I'm going back again? Or were like, what was it?

SPEAKER_00:

That's part of it. I mean, it goes along with with selling drugs. If people who sold drugs, I was a street dealer, right? If you never went to prison, people started questioning why are you staying out of prison? They think you're telling it's how you're staying out. Some people did that. I didn't, I wouldn't date my time, you know. But uh you can get used to anything, Robin.

SPEAKER_01:

You know, I've and were you were you ever scared selling drugs?

SPEAKER_00:

Scared towards the end, I was robbed in the in the tenderloin or attempted, someone attempted to rob me or hit me over the head with a beer bottle and grabbing my backpack, which I assume they thought the drugs were in the backpack. There's nothing in there, yeah. But that started my process, these people were willing to kill me over this thing, right? There was violence going on all the time. I was not having a good time anymore. I mean, I think that's the primary thing. If you're not enjoying what you're doing, why are you doing it?

SPEAKER_01:

Right, yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

And so uh, yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

Oh, I love that. If you're not enjoying what you're doing, why are you doing it? So, and you said the tender loin, what's the tender loin?

SPEAKER_00:

That's the worst area in in San Francisco, so it's like the ghetto.

SPEAKER_01:

And where what city is that in?

SPEAKER_00:

San Francisco.

SPEAKER_01:

Oh, it's in San Francisco, okay, okay.

SPEAKER_00:

It's just our neighborhood. It's a neighborhood in San Francisco, it's where the it's a heavily drug area. Okay, and they sell that in the last book I talked about the battle. That's where that starts at in the tender line.

SPEAKER_01:

Okay, okay, man. Yeah, I'm gonna have to read all these. I'm gonna have to get some time. Is your book on audio tape?

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, they're all they're all audio books now. Okay, you're gonna pick one to read, pick this one, okay.

SPEAKER_01:

Griffin I okay, and why why specifically that one, Uncle Tim?

SPEAKER_00:

Well, I got great reviews on that book. Okay, I got two-page reviews on that on Amazon. Uh-huh. I think it's my best work. You know, you hate to, it's like you have children, you don't want to say, Well, I like that child better than that child, whatever. I loved all of them when I was doing them, you know. But that one got the best, the best. A lot of people liked it. Pretty like yeah, okay.

SPEAKER_01:

Do you have anything that you any messages for Ivon or my mom?

SPEAKER_00:

I talked to them. I talked to Ivan yesterday, your mom day before yesterday. Yeah, we still talk. They know that. I mean, I I I think they're happy because, of course, back in the 80s, person told you they had HIV. You know, you assumed that this is going to be a tragic thing and we're going to lose you. And it didn't turn out that way, and they they were there for that. So I think they're very proud that I'm not in prison. Because usually when I called them, I was calling from prison. So people will give up after after the eighth or ninth or tenth time, they would kind of say, Okay, he's not gonna make it. But I did make it, and I'm very healthy. I have I've had HIV for over 35 years. Hey, be quiet. Yeah, nope, yeah. He reacts to anybody walking in the hall.

SPEAKER_01:

Oh, okay. And then what was it? I remember when you guys were talking about how you used to pick on my mom and auntie.

SPEAKER_00:

Right. Well, that's what I do on YouTube. What do you mean? I'm in the beef sector, all we do is pick on each other. That's it. We beef.

SPEAKER_02:

Really? What do you mean? What do you mean saying, Uncle?

SPEAKER_00:

Well, Yvonne, she still has a little bit of attitude about that because I mean I tease her like most boys and girls tease when they're teenagers, pre-teens or whatever. I always tease her, but I just say I I tease people now too. Yeah, it's part of the personality.

SPEAKER_01:

And didn't you put like a water hose or something in in my mom's room?

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, I put to put a water hose under their their bedroom door, I put furniture on their beds. I didn't buy the Cheryl, Cheryl was more amused, amused by it. Yeah, mom was much more sensitive, right? So the more you get on your nerves, then you won't do it more, you know.

SPEAKER_01:

Right. That's so funny because that's exactly what Derek did to me. That I don't I don't get it.

SPEAKER_00:

It's natural, right? Supposed to pick on you.

SPEAKER_01:

I don't understand that. Brothers can be so mean sometimes, right? But that's good. I love that, Uncle Tim. I definitely am gonna start reading that, and I'm definitely gonna put all of your your books and everything in the show notes. Do you have a website or anything or just the YouTube?

SPEAKER_00:

Just Amazon.

SPEAKER_01:

Oh, the Amazon. Okay, so Amazon. Yeah, I'll put that down in the show notes. The Amazon for all of your books, and then what is your YouTube channel called?

SPEAKER_00:

Timothy Blaine.

SPEAKER_01:

Timothy Blaine. Okay, all right, yeah, I'll put that all in the show notes. Did you uh have any other particular messages to give the listeners or anything, Uncle Tim?

SPEAKER_00:

Turn to Jesus. Yeah, the only way I know that's all I think I can say. I mean, I don't understand everything spiritual, I don't even understand why people feel it's so important that we have to have a perfect understanding of God. We just have to know that He is right, He is a deliverer. That's my experience. That's all I can share with anybody. For me has been 25 years after going in and out. So 30 30 years in jail, 10 years in prison, that's 40 40 times locked up, right? Yeah, and then for it to be gone like that, honey. And after only I turned to was Christ. Yeah, so I turned my faith to him. I began to believe this is with a lot of opposition, you know. This thing with the church and the gays and all that, and then they had the gay marriage, so everybody was talking about that. You know, a lot of this stuff attacks your faith. Yeah, what I understand is nothing's gonna attack my faith. It's personal, it's personal, it happened. I pray to God right now. I know him, I know him to be real, and I think that's all you that's that's what you need to get by, honey.

SPEAKER_01:

Absolutely. I I love that, Uncle Tim, and I love you. Said he is the deliverer, yes, absolutely.

SPEAKER_00:

The reason that that he was going running around uh delivering people, showing you who he was. Yeah, I can only touch the hem of his garment. In other words, I can touch the faith because I had no faith before that, none. I was busy selling drugs, right? You know, right until I needed them.

SPEAKER_01:

Oh my goodness. Oh, well, thank you again so much for coming on, Uncle Tim. It's been lovely having you on here.

SPEAKER_00:

Where can I see the episodes?

SPEAKER_01:

I'm actually gonna get ready to upload everything and then I'll send it all to you via email. I'll send you the links and then the reels and all of that that I've I create, I'll send it to you.

SPEAKER_00:

Oh, okay, okay. You have two kids now, right?

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

How old are your kids now?

SPEAKER_01:

Uh Mariah is 17, she'll be 18 next year, and then Makai, he's about to be 14.

SPEAKER_00:

All of you had uh one boy and one girl. Yeah, it's amazing. You know, you nobody had two girls, and nobody had two boys, you know. Oh, well, say hello to the family.

SPEAKER_01:

I definitely will because Derek, because you know, Vanessa, wait a minute, how old is Vanessa? Vanessa is 19 now, so she'll be 20 next year, but then Alex and Makai are two months apart, so they're both 14.

SPEAKER_00:

Oh, I think that's yeah, more teenagers.

SPEAKER_01:

Definitely more teenagers, so yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

That's gonna be a rough period. Okay, yes.

SPEAKER_01:

All right, well, uh, hold on, Uncle Tim. But thank you again, everyone, to all my listeners. Again, I'm Robin Black, and this is It's All About Healing Podcast, and thank you again to Timothy Blaine. Everyone, stay blessed.