About Michael

About Michael's Earlier Life

​​  When I turned 20 I returned to Cleveland and found work in nursing and then in sales and then in Customer Service 18 years. relief in a short career as a standup comic.  

But I still I felt disconnected, empty all too often. I now realize I was looking for myself. I considered acting and becoming a pastor as well.  During this time, I became a father.  No matter what children are a blessings and bring meaning to life.  I have been part of his life since before he was born, attending Lamaze classes with his mother and being present at the birth. 

My own mother, Sandra Parker, I see very rarely and the reason for this is the tragedy which still haunts her.  Mother was very young she was raped.  In those days this was seen as a shame on the woman and her family, no matter what the circumstances.  Her family did not speak of it or report the crime to authorities.  Instead, her depression was treated as a psychological matter and she was hospitalized and kept drugged most of the time.  I have never been able to learn all of the story or even see her more than the few times Grandma, her own mother, and her grandmother, my great-grandmother took me to see her.  She married my father, Jerry Lewis Landingham, during the short time she was not hospitalized and I am her only child.  

My father was murdered by gang members because he refused to join their gang when I was three.  I never really knew him because I was then living with my Grandmother in Alabama. 

It was from this, and my desire to connect to family I began researching the Landingham family name by putting up a Facebook page,   Landinghams United, which is now Landingham 2020

​My Grandma, she worked hard all of her life and taught me to do the same.

Grandma, gone but still loved

   I was born in Cleveland Ohio on September 24th 1981 and then I moved with my Grandmother and Great Grandmother to a little town called Lisman Alabama and I was raised in the church. 

My Grandmother, Geraldine Parker, and her mother, Daisy Parker, were a part of the Civil Rights movement and met Dr. Martin Luther King when we came through our town on the way to the Selma March. I grew up on the stories.  

Daisy's mother, my great-great-grandmother, Luella Ruffin, was a full-blooded Choctaw and proud of her roots.  She had an ability to heal, laying on hands and using herbs and infusions she made herself.  It is from her I believe I inherited my own skills for healing.  

They were all courageous, believing women. 

When I was 12 Grandmother and I were attacked by a gang of thugs.  She was badly injured when one of them hit her with a two by four.  It happened because I was trying to prevent a friend of mine from joining the gang.  Because of Grandma's injuries I was put into foster care until I was 18. 

It was as if my entire world had vanished.  School felt like just another punishment to be escaped but I continued my interest in the developments toward space flight.   

    

When I aged out of foster care I found a series of jobs, working at a theater as a ticket-taker, at a fast-food restaurant, and other jobs.

My Grandma, she worked hard all of her life and taught me to do the same.

When I turned 20 I returned to Cleveland and found work in nursing and then in sales and then in Customer Service 18 years. relief in a short career as a standup comic.  

But I still I felt disconnected, empty all too often. I now realize I was looking for myself. I considered acting and becoming a pastor as well.  During this time, I became a father.  No matter what children are a blessings and bring meaning to life.  I have been part of his life since before he was born, attending Lamaze classes with his mother and being present at the birth. 

My own mother, Sandra Parker, I see very rarely and the reason for this is the tragedy which still haunts her.  Mother was very young she was raped.  In those days this was seen as a shame on the woman and her family, no matter what the circumstances.  Her family did not speak of it or report the crime to authorities.  Instead, her depression was treated as a psychological matter and she was hospitalized and kept drugged most of the time.  I have never been able to learn all of the story or even see her more than the few times Grandma, her own mother, and her grandmother, my great-grandmother took me to see her.  She married my father, Jerry Lewis Landingham, during the short time she was not hospitalized and I am her only child.  

My father was murdered by gang members because he refused to join their gang when I was three.  I never really knew him because I was then living with my Grandmother in Alabama. 

It was from this, and my desire to connect to family I began researching the Landingham family name by putting up a Facebook page,   Landinghams United, which is now Landingham 2020

In the group we shared our research and records.  This led to encounters with Landinghams who were white, black Samoan, among others. Each story was fascinating; along with seeing the connects between us it drew me to see the potential for all of us to come together past the divides which still separate Americans. 

I began speaking on this, urging others, Landinghams and others to see all of us, Americans and every other ethnicity, are connected.  Understanding this reduces the sense others are somehow alien, less worthy, more worthy, different.  Immediately, I saw how this could bring us together.

One of my gifts is public speaking and I began speaking, first to small groups.  In every instance those who heard what was being said as an opportunity for moving past divides to coming together to love one another. 

Michael inherited land in Alabama and loves walking there and planning a future for himself and his children - and how different the future will be when Americans come together.