Mens Journal

was out of cash and stay by her folks for a

while. But around when my grandpa died

and I asked her point-blank ‘Can I come live

with you?’ she told me ‘Nope no you can’t.’

And that was that.”

In retrospect Tyra cut him a huge

break. At the time Mathieu was f ive and

living with his grandmother a God-fearing

woman whose chaotic household was the

refuge for many of her children’s cast-off

children. Marie Spellman-Mathieu and her

husbandLorenzohadraised11kidsthen

found themselves raising their grandkids.

Tyrann was one of dozens who spent part

of their childhoods in the couple’s six-room

doubleshotgunonOrleansAvenuesleeping

on the f loor with everyone else and getting

up and wearing whatever clothes might f it

him and weren’t frayed to bits. Marie’s house

was an Etch A Sketch of people coming and

going cousins and nieces and ex-cons and

crackheads all seeking the respite of her

affection. “That woman was straight love”

says Mathieu tapping his heart. “She was

sort of like our church — or halfway house.”

The week before I met him Mathieu

buried Marie at a massive funeral service in

New Orleans. (She succumbed at 75 after

pastor who approached Mathieu on Twit-
ter takes the stage to speak of “resurrection
people” meaning those who’ve witnessed
hardship and survived. His sermon a long
homily on martyrdom and hope loses me
for good about halfway in but Mathieu nods
and grunts throughout the service. When
it’s over he sits there hunched in thought
jaw resting on the steeple of his hands.
“Whatwereyouthinking?”Iaskhimin
the hall.
“That he was talking directly to me” he
mutters. “My whole life I’ve seen things I
can’t unsee.”
It started at birth when his mother
dumped him on her parents and ran off “to
chase dudes” as he tartly puts it. Begin-
ning at 22 Tyra Mathieu birthed f ive kids
in seven years to two men she barely saw
again. Tyrann was her second with Darrin
Hayes a kid off the streets who killed a man
in cold blood when Mathieu was only two.
“First time I met him I was 10 years old”
says Mathieu. Hayes rarely wrote him or
evincedtheslightestinterestuntilMathieu
became a star at Louisiana State University.
As for Tyra — well motherhood was never
her strong suit. “She’d come back when she

a number of strokes.) He was the only one

whospoketakingthepulpitfor30minutes

to consecrate the things she’d tried to teach

him. “With her it was always about ‘we’ not

‘me’ ” he said “and that we’re put on Earth

to help out other people.” Those used to be

foggyconceptsforaneglectedchildwho

burned to be part of anything. It’s taken him

decades to f inally trust the people he loves

and who love him. One of those people is his

uncle Tyrone who is also his adoptive father.

“I took Tyrann with me after his grand-

dad died — I could see how bad he wanted

what my kids had” says Tyrone Mathieu

49 a longtime driver for UPS who became

Tyrann’s guardian when the boy was f ive

and finalized the adoption 12 years later.

Tyrone and his wife Sheila a registered

nurseare themoralgirdersoftheMathieu

clan.Withthreekidsoftheirown they

raised Tyrann and Tyrone’s niece Keviah

then opened their door to Tyrone’s younger

brother Anthony. “We loved ’em like our

own. But Tyrann it took longer. He ques-

tioned if it was real till probably college.”

Tyrone owned a house in New Orleans

East in a neighborhood of parks and youth-

league sports and he enrolled his new

boarder in all of them. One night he went

down to pick up his kids and saw the other

parents standing and screaming. Tyrann

sixwasplayingshortcenterandturning

everything hit his way into a double play.

“He didn’t get the concept of throwing to

first” say Tyrone. “He just ran down all the

runners and tagged ’em out.” Several months

later he had another surprise. Tyrann a line-

backer in the novice league was bursting

through the line to rip the handoff from the

tailback and take it 40 yards to the house.

By nine or 10 he was going against teens

a 90-pound blur playing sandlot ball and

Mathieu

figures

80 percent

of the men

he’s covered

gave up

during

the game

then came

over after

and showed

him love.