LaMills Alexander Garrett was born to Lamills Alonzo Garrett and Jacqueline "Jackie" Deloris Garrett (Priester) on August 2, 1972 at Richland Memorial Hospital in Columbia, SC. Interesting side note is that the "s" in LaMills nor the "capital M" was on his original birth certificate; although they were on the Social Security card. An amendment to the birth certificate was required to add the "s" in order for his name to be recorded correctly for high school graduation. Funny enough that seems small on the surface being that all of his childhood and through high school he was referred to "Alex" which is short for Alexander which is a longstanding name for the paternal side of his family going back several generations. Not to mention, being called "LaMills" would have meant being called the same as his father although he wasn't a "junior."
LaMills has very few memories, photos, or other data recounting his first few years of life. Thus if anyone reading this has such data, please feel free to contact him. He remembers riding a bigwheel down a hill and crashing. And apparently the first time he met his now Aunt Dannie was when he walked down the stairs of the family home in Latimer Manor Apartments with a diaper hanging off his behind and a trail of poop down the stairs. Beyond those two things, his memory of pre-school years primarily involved his paternal grandmother, Lila Garrett (Anderson). Grandma Lila was the most influential person in his life through those years and Baby Alex adored his grandma and everything about her.
Aside from genuine love and frequent nurturing Little Alex received from Grandma Lila there are a few specific events and memories that stand out. Grandma Lila was a devote servant to the church - now the Church of our Lord & Savior on Germany Street in Columbia- and whenever she was at church, Little Alex was in tow. There was lots of singing, speaking in tongues, Holy ghosting, aisle dancing, and feeling the lord. On the ride home with grandma after church one of those days, Alex decided to attempt something he saw done by others or at least someone. He opened door while they were driving down Bluff Road. The door flung opened, Grandma let out a scream, pulled over, closed the door, and proceeded to administer some love taps that obviously have been very memorable. When he wasn't at church with Grandma it seemed that he was always eating something. Whether it was her hash and rice which was the best in South Carolina and she did sell it, or pecans from the pecan tree in her yard, some of Grandma's homemade ice cream, his very own BooBerry cereal, or one of Grandma's pies. Little Alex didn't hurt for a meal.
There was one afternoon when Alex was climbing that pecan tree and panicked when realizing a spider was on him causing a clumsy dismount and a decent fall- along with a clear exaggeration of how the spider bit him. As Grandma checked him, cleaned him, mended him, and soothed him, he would notice the treacherous spider which Grandma lovingly called out as a Daddy Long-leg spider and noted that it can't hurt people as gently moved it away with her fingers. That generated a hearty teasing from big cousin Marvin. Marvin lived in Grandma's house and delighted in giving Alex and Rod (Alex's favorite cousin) a hard-time like any big cousin would. Alex didn't hesitate to welcome punish from Marvin as he regularly ventured into Marvin's room to mettle with the cherished model airplanes. Despite knowing the punishment would be brutal, Alex just couldn't help himself. Not to mention, that if he was able to escape to Grandma's side before Marvin or anyone else ever got to him- he would always be safe. Grandma Lila didn't tolerate anyone touching her baby, including his own parents. It was great when he and Rod were together because the loving from Grandma was doubly good and always plenty activity to remain occupied.
Around the age of 4, LaMills remembers spending most of his time with his mother (Jackie) and his older sister and brother- Tisha and Nikki, respectively. Those memories begin in Apartment 5-E of Bethel Bishop Memorial Chappelle Apartments, known as the Bishop. A cozy first floor, two bedroom apartment near the entrance of the apartment complex where the four of them lived before eventually moving to four bedrooms in apartment 10-A. Even when living in the Bishop, Little Alex would still get some weekend time with Grandma until he was informed one dreadful day that she had died of a heart attack on a bus while on a trip with the church. He would learn this the day of the funeral along with the fact that the decision had been made that he would not be attending.
For LaMills, Grandma Lila lives in his life as a grounding source of love. He has a saying that "There are no bad people. Just good people making bad choices." It was his Grandma Lila that instilled within him to display a sense of love for every human being, to give all the benefit of doubt, and to avoid labeling others as "bad" regardless of the bad choices they've made with the understanding that God prevails and God's spirit can help transcend bad choices to great experiences and successes.
LaMills has very few memories, photos, or other data recounting his first few years of life. Thus if anyone reading this has such data, please feel free to contact him. He remembers riding a bigwheel down a hill and crashing. And apparently the first time he met his now Aunt Dannie was when he walked down the stairs of the family home in Latimer Manor Apartments with a diaper hanging off his behind and a trail of poop down the stairs. Beyond those two things, his memory of pre-school years primarily involved his paternal grandmother, Lila Garrett (Anderson). Grandma Lila was the most influential person in his life through those years and Baby Alex adored his grandma and everything about her.
Aside from genuine love and frequent nurturing Little Alex received from Grandma Lila there are a few specific events and memories that stand out. Grandma Lila was a devote servant to the church - now the Church of our Lord & Savior on Germany Street in Columbia- and whenever she was at church, Little Alex was in tow. There was lots of singing, speaking in tongues, Holy ghosting, aisle dancing, and feeling the lord. On the ride home with grandma after church one of those days, Alex decided to attempt something he saw done by others or at least someone. He opened door while they were driving down Bluff Road. The door flung opened, Grandma let out a scream, pulled over, closed the door, and proceeded to administer some love taps that obviously have been very memorable. When he wasn't at church with Grandma it seemed that he was always eating something. Whether it was her hash and rice which was the best in South Carolina and she did sell it, or pecans from the pecan tree in her yard, some of Grandma's homemade ice cream, his very own BooBerry cereal, or one of Grandma's pies. Little Alex didn't hurt for a meal.
There was one afternoon when Alex was climbing that pecan tree and panicked when realizing a spider was on him causing a clumsy dismount and a decent fall- along with a clear exaggeration of how the spider bit him. As Grandma checked him, cleaned him, mended him, and soothed him, he would notice the treacherous spider which Grandma lovingly called out as a Daddy Long-leg spider and noted that it can't hurt people as gently moved it away with her fingers. That generated a hearty teasing from big cousin Marvin. Marvin lived in Grandma's house and delighted in giving Alex and Rod (Alex's favorite cousin) a hard-time like any big cousin would. Alex didn't hesitate to welcome punish from Marvin as he regularly ventured into Marvin's room to mettle with the cherished model airplanes. Despite knowing the punishment would be brutal, Alex just couldn't help himself. Not to mention, that if he was able to escape to Grandma's side before Marvin or anyone else ever got to him- he would always be safe. Grandma Lila didn't tolerate anyone touching her baby, including his own parents. It was great when he and Rod were together because the loving from Grandma was doubly good and always plenty activity to remain occupied.
Around the age of 4, LaMills remembers spending most of his time with his mother (Jackie) and his older sister and brother- Tisha and Nikki, respectively. Those memories begin in Apartment 5-E of Bethel Bishop Memorial Chappelle Apartments, known as the Bishop. A cozy first floor, two bedroom apartment near the entrance of the apartment complex where the four of them lived before eventually moving to four bedrooms in apartment 10-A. Even when living in the Bishop, Little Alex would still get some weekend time with Grandma until he was informed one dreadful day that she had died of a heart attack on a bus while on a trip with the church. He would learn this the day of the funeral along with the fact that the decision had been made that he would not be attending.
For LaMills, Grandma Lila lives in his life as a grounding source of love. He has a saying that "There are no bad people. Just good people making bad choices." It was his Grandma Lila that instilled within him to display a sense of love for every human being, to give all the benefit of doubt, and to avoid labeling others as "bad" regardless of the bad choices they've made with the understanding that God prevails and God's spirit can help transcend bad choices to great experiences and successes.