Tyler Perry has a constant reminder of his late mother’s love.
Perry, who wrote and directed the new movie “The Six Triple Eight,” said on TODAY on Dec. 16 that he wears his late mother’s necklace that has a deep connection to him and siblings.
“She had a chain with all of her kids’ initials on it and when she died, they had it broken up and given to all my brother and my sisters, so we all have this chain,” he said.
Perry recalled his mother encouraging him to work at the phone company to make money before she realized he was destined for another path.
“I heard the best quote and I can’t remember who actually said it, but the best quote was, ‘The first weapon I ever held was my mother’s hand,’” he said.
“And with those hands, she taught me so much about prayer and getting through things and moving through and just being a good person, so those things for me are very, very important,” he continued.
Perry referenced that quote and his mother, who died 15 years ago, earlier this month while accepting the Icon Award at the 7th annual Celebration of Black Cinema and Television.
“That same hand of my mother’s that was my first weapon was also hands that she told me to put together and pray when I was going through some things, so I’ve been praying a lot lately, just a lot” he said. “(I’ve been) leaning into all of the good that is in the world and the collective us and what we can do, one unto another.”
Perry’s latest effort, “The Six Triple Eight,” tells the true story of the 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion, the only Women’s Army Corps unit of color, which overcame discrimination in World War II to sort through a backlog of 17 million pieces of mail that hadn’t been delivered to American soldiers abroad, according to Netflix Tudum.