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LEILA FADEL, HOST:
Time now for StoryCorps. Shanita Baraka Akintonde and Danielle Tavon Bishop are sisters who grew up in Chicago in the '80s. They came to StoryCorps to remember their mother, Mary Catherine Bishop, known to family and friends as Cat.
SHANITA BARAKA AKINTONDE: She was born in Brinkley, Arkansas, which I call Blinkley (ph) 'cause if you blink, you'd miss it. She had dark ebony skin, bright brown eyes and white, white teeth. She painted her nails dark maroons, and her lipstick matched that. And I remember when she kissed me...
DANIELLE TAVON BISHOP: It left the lipstick print on you.
AKINTONDE: Yeah. It left that lipstick print. I loved it. Mom didn't give two flying hoots whether you agreed with her. She was going to say what she wanted to say. And if you got with it, great. If you didn't, peace. She would tell you the same story.
BISHOP: ...But a different spin on it (laughter).
AKINTONDE: But it would be a different spin every time. And you did not interrupt her and say...
BISHOP: Oh, no.
AKINTONDE: ...Mom, I've heard that story before, right?
BISHOP: Absolutely not.
AKINTONDE: I'd literally study everything from how she walked to how she talked because I thought she was amazing.
BISHOP: The year before her passing, it was Thanksgiving, and she took me in the kitchen. She told me specifically, this is my last year cooking, so you need to learn how to do this. And I remember we stayed up to the early morning, laughing, having a good time. And that was our last Thanksgiving.
AKINTONDE: On her last days, she was in the hospital at this point, going in and out of consciousness. She said, take me home and make my room look like heaven. So what we did was paint the walls a beautiful mauve color, like a sunset. We made sure with the pillows that they were fluffed properly and that the sheets popped. When she came home, she looked around and smiled. I just wanted to savor that moment because I knew that meant she was happy with what we had done. She told us to get her two things.
BISHOP: Two drinks, the sherry and the beer, in a bottle.
AKINTONDE: Not a can.
BISHOP: Not a can.
AKINTONDE: And I said, you can't have that. You're on medication. And she gave me that look.
BISHOP: And remember the look she gave you (laughter)?
AKINTONDE: She gave me the look. And I said, I'll be right back. I don't even know if she swallowed it. She just brought it up to her lips. And that night, she passed.
BISHOP: The next year, that was my first Thanksgiving. And all of the family came over to my home, and I tried to channel all that I could of my mom. And now I feel like her hands come on top of me as I'm preparing the meals.
AKINTONDE: You know, Mom, she was my first real role model. And I think I'm still evolving into being half the woman she was.
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FADEL: That's Shanita Baraka Akintonde and Danielle Tavon Bishop. Their mother, Mary Catherine Bishop, died in 2012. Their conversation is part of the StoryCorps Brightness in Black project. It's archived at the Library of Congress. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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