Regina Louise Tells World I Am Somebody's Child

Regina Louise

By Darlene Donloe

As a child, Regina Louise was abandoned by her biological parents. She eventually ended up in 30 foster homes and psychiatric facilities – frequently running away.  She didn’t have any self-worth and was convinced her life didn’t matter because she felt her parents had thrown her away.

It was a lot for a young child to comprehend and to endure.

At one facility she met a woman named Jeanne, who took the little girl under her wing, calling her sweetheart and making her feel like she belonged. Jeanne, who is white, believed in Regina Louise and even took measures to adopt her, to no avail. The courts denied her petition due to a racially motivated ruling. Fast forward, and 25 years later, Jeanne was finally able to adopt Louise, now 41, with a 17-year-old son in the same courthouse that previously denied them. She was finally somebody's child.

This was and is Regina Louise’s life.

When you talk to Regina Louise today it’s easy to understand just how she made her way through a tumultuous childhood. She looked inside and willed herself to do it. She willed herself to walk through her pain and to come out on the other side wiser, stronger and resilient. She willed herself because she knew there was more.

At 55, Louise, who legally changed her name to Regina Louise Kerr-Taylor, admits it wasn’t an easy journey. But that was then, this is now. Today she is a picture of strength. When she speaks, it’s about being uplifted while uplifting others. It’s about helping others. It’s about moving forward.

Louise’s story is told in the Lifetime film, I Am Somebody’s Child: The Regina Louise Story, currently airing on the network.  The film is based on her 2018 memoir Someone Has Led This Child to Believe and 2009’s Somebody’s Someone, which tells the true story of how she persevered in America’s foster care system.

(l-r) Ginnifer Goodwin and Angela Fairley as Jeanne Kerr-Taylor and Regina Louise respectively
in Lifetime's I Am Somebody's Child 

The film features stars Ginnifer Goodwin, Angela Fairley, Kim Hawthorne, Sherri Saum, and Monique Coleman.

Regina Louise

I recently spoke to Regina Louise, who eventually married and had a son, about I Am Somebody’s Child: The Regina Louise Story, now playing on Lifetime.

DD:  Why did you want your story told in book form and then as a movie?

RL: I wanted my story told in book form because there were no books at the time I was going through it. There was nothing for me at a time when I had sufficiently dealt with my adverse trials enough to truly understand trauma. I wanted to read stories about what I had experienced. There were none. There were none for black girls. For representation and being an abandoned girl and then healing myself, there were no stories I could relate to. The ones that I did find took me back to slavery. That’s not what I was looking for. Generations had passed. I said I’m going to write my true life story.  I didn’t see myself. People like me have zero privilege. Or think about someone who lives with their parent(s) in a car. It’s strained but that relationship between parent and child is still a sense of belonging. It is still intact. In foster care, it takes a diaspora of a completely different kind. I needed to write my own experience. I needed some sense of normal.

DD:  You were in 30 different homes! With what you went through as a foster child, what is the biggest lesson you learned?

RL: I learned the title of my book. The biggest is - never leave it to anybody to narrate my possibility. The conditions I grew up with are still here. It’s trauma on a politicized black body. Our traumas are used to define us and criminalize us.  Trust no one to articulate my possibilities or give me a fair shake. I was led to believe I wasn’t worth shit or the air I breathe. No one will criminalize me ever again.

DD: What happened to you when you turned 18? Where did you go? What did you do?

RL: I emancipated with my Glad garbage bag. I went to San Francisco State and stayed for five years. I got found out that I was failing my classes and hustling financial aid. In those five years, I hung out and had a chance to grow up. I learned to become an improvisation artist. I learned how to perform the longing to be someone’s child - so that I could fit in. Every moment in it, I was acting like I belonged. Some would say that’s lying. I call it improvisation. You act as if someone loves you and someone cares. I was acting ‘as if.’

DD: Have you ever looked for your parents?

RL: Yeah, they are doing what they’re doing. I lived my life respecting that. I tried to save my mother. When that earth parent is not able to bridge that gap – you have to make choices.  We find the reality of why we weren’t able to be with them in the first place. I didn’t want to raise them when they couldn’t raise me.

DD: It took 16 years to get your story to the screen! How is it you never gave up?

RL: That question takes us right to spirit. You know that poem Footprint. I enjoyed walking alongside you and it was great to see you. Where were you – the Lord said that’s when I was carrying you. Metaphorically that’s what guts are about. I had given it everything I had. Grace said You hold on. Grace would offer me little things. Grace said, Don’t believe he brought you this far to leave you. I nurtured myself from scripture and grace.

DD: How powerful is the word mommy?

RL: It’s a primal word. It’s primal. It’s so wired and historically and biologically and humanly wired into the essence of who we are. When my baby calls me mommy, that’s everything. It’s everything when it’s good. When you don’t have it, I had to learn to live without having that. I never called anyone mom or mommy.  They tried to force me to say it at some of the homes. I said, bye. I was saving it for someone who deserved it and for someone who really wanted me. So for those others who wanted me to call them mom or mommy, no. I’m not calling someone mommy who is getting paid to take care of me. It’s just not going to happen.

DD: You were never adopted.  What are your feelings about the foster system?

RL: I think the foster care system that is in place - it works and doesn't work. It’s not all bad and villainous. We all live in a system. We have contracts that say we are willing to live within a system patriarchy – on and on. I think we as individuals have to understand that we need to save ourselves from the system and prepare ourselves to live in the system but independently. Don’t depend on them to be our saviors.

Sherri Saum and Ginnifer Goodwin portray Regina Louise and Jeanne Kerr Taylor, respectively
in Lifetime's Somebody's Child

DD: Talk about Jeanne Kerr-Taylor and what she means to you.

RL:  She is an incredible person who is and was willing to be there. She was willing to fight to the degree she could. She showed me I was worth it. It’s something I will never forget. Jeanne wasn’t afraid to love me or call me out. She wanted me to show up every day. She was everything at one point. She taught me that love is never wasted. Love is never wasted. It’s so beautiful. It speaks to what Jeanne means to me.

DD: Do you have any contact with any of the people from those 30 homes?  Why or why not?

RL: I reached out to some before the film was made. With some of them, I made amends. Some I have told that I’m sorry if I caused you any distress. In a way, I adopted the kids that were in there then. I owned a beauty salon. I would give them a day of beauty. I would take them to Adopt a Bear. I’ve done a lot to invest back into communities.

DD: What makes you happy today?

RL: Knowing that I did what I said I was going to do when I was in solitary confinement. I would show people with challenges that none of that defines you. There is still a chance to take hold of your life and live it to the fullest. They don't understand what their best life is. I wanted to be that person who could speak to regular people from the perspective of someone who has been there and done that. Doing what I’m doing. Being a change agent.

**Check your local Lifetime listings!