Jessica Germaine, the woman who Apollo Nida requested money from in a letter from prison, is speaking out and wants her ‘5 minutes’!
It was only about a week ago that Apollo Nida, the jailed spouse of The Real Housewives of Atlanta‘s Phaedra Parks, was in the news again after his female ‘pen-pal’ attempted to put him on blast.
If you missed that, a woman sent Nida a book to read and he responded, asking her to send him money.? She then responded to him that she’d rather put money into her daughter’s savings and he responded that he would pray for her a ‘financial windfall’… I’m paraphrasing but you get the drift.
[READ: The Thirst! Apollo Nida Collecting Pen-Pals & Payments in Prison… (PHOTOS)]
Whatever the case, Jessica Germaine, recently contacted me and wants to set the record straight about the situation.
Apparently y’all made Jessica feel ‘some kinda way’ in your online comments about her decision to write Apollo in the first and she feels the need to respond to all the backlash.? Germaine states in her long response that she is not ‘thirsty’ or out to gain attention. She even claims that she never watched a single episode RHOA and was not a fan of Apollo Nida’s.
Germaine claims her intentions were pure but since she’s got your attention, she’s got some things to say. (It’s a very long read, but that’s what the internet is for… right?)
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Read Jessica’s full explanation about why she chose to write that very married man letters in prison below…
Jessica Germaine sent the copy below of Apollo’s full letter in an email with the subject line ‘Re: APOLLO NIDA BEGGING FULL LETTERS…’ along with a lengthy explanation about why she contacted him in the first place…
from: Jessica Germaine
to: Straightfromthea
date: Mon, Sep 14, 2015 at 5:34 PM
subject: Re: APOLLO NIDA BEGGING FULL LETTERS…
Since I posted that letter I received from Apollo, I know many people had a lot of questions for me and I hope I have done my best to answer them for you. 1. Who is this pathetic broad and why is she sending Apollo a book?
Well, I’m no pathetic broad or any other degrading name I have recently been called. I’m Jessica Germaine… a 28 year old working mother and a published author. I use portions of what I make from my book sales to send free copies to people we often tend to forget about- those who are incarcerated. In June of this year, I put up a post asking my FBF to send me names of people who are locked up, they started sending them, and I started doing my part in carrying out my deed. In fact, I never watched a single eposide of RHOA and neither am I fan of Apollo Nida.
2. How much did the book cost me to ship?
Couldn’t I have used that money and put it in my daughter’s account? It cost a total of $10.80 for ME to ship the book. But here’s how it works…. one book (mostly two) is sent to a man or a WOMAN in the pen, along with a brief letter explaining who I am, what I am sending, and a “P.O. BOX” address to where they can send me reviews and feedback. The book(s) gets passed around from inmate to inmate and it touches lives. Sure I lose a few dollars, but I gain a few blessings. And when I am blessed, so is my family.
I hope I cleared up some misunderstandings for all of you who criticized me, but now I have a few questions for you….Do you have any God-given talents and how have you been using them to give back? How many people have you inspired or tried to uplift lately? And how would you feel if your honest efforts to encourage somebody was used to be tricked out of a few dollars, then insulted when you didn’t comply? If I was desperate for attention I would have shared the first letter of Apollo asking for money the second I received it. Whether I was right or wrong for doing it, I only posted that last one to MY FB PAGE only because I just wanted to show the nerve of a person… not to gain publicity.
I admit, I did not think about the power of screenshots, bloggers, and social media but since it’s already out there, I think it’s quite sad that I got criticized for not having a fill-in on my fingernails instead being recognized for using those same jacked up fingers to create something as challenging as a novel. Many of you are only good for using your flawless acrylics/gels to click on gossip columns and type up nasty comments about women who are trying to pursue their dreams simply because you don’t have any of your own.
Instead of being more productive with your time, you’d rather sit $200 weaves on top of $20 heads and use your 2 cents to worry about why someone YOU don’t even know is sending books to somebody THEY dont know. Instead of worrying about what God is placing on my heart to do for others, how about you ask yourself ‘If I was male author…would it have been disrespectful?’ Why did that post have over 1000 hits in less than 15 mins? Why do gossip sites have such a big following and why do they have to continously feed you every hour with drama in order to keep you alive?
I I literally witnessed thousands of people come together to attack me over an issue that even I admit was a little petty, but I’m still waiting to see 20 people stand on our street corners or in front of our local courthouses and take a stand against more serious matters that are happening right now in our communities. Instead of worrying about me and my motives, let’s worry about why we are letting uneducating reality shows distract us from real issues like.. why so many of our young brothers are killing each other?
Why our African-American females have become so insecure that we can’t even be comfortable in our own eyelashes. Or how about why we’re letting our favorite rappers teach our sons to sell dope and our daughters to shake their butts while they send their kids to private schools, top colleges, and get mad when we call their children the same types of names they get paid to call ours. Let’s worry about why there are so many videos of us fighting and acting like animals, while the rest of the world watches and grows a deeper hatred for us.
If you have a friend from a foreign country I challenge you to do this… ask him to let you login to his FB page and scroll down his newfeed so you can see just how other places around the world view blacks in America. It’s sad what they think about us, but can you blame them when all they learn is what they see from popular sites we proudly patronize like WorldStar?
Instead of worrying about whose wife is not putting money on whose books, let’s worry about the loved ones we have waiting in the cells for a few bucks or a letter from us. And I wont even address the people who say I should not be sending criminals ANYTHING because I assume you all are perfect. I dont do it to please you though. I do it because it feels good to see a young black male, who said they never read a book in their entire lives, walk up to me and say “Aye I read yo’ book when I was locked up, sh*t was tuff.” I never would have imagined that people I watched TV documentaries on and whose names I heard in rap songs- such as Big Meech- would be spending a weekend reading my book and then take the time to write me back and tell me how much he enjoyed it. And might I add, not ask me for money in the process. That’s why I do it.
See truth is, these celebs and even little ordinary me, aren’t worried about your opinions because those same opinions are what’s keeping them paid and relevant. They’re sitting around drinking champagne out of expensive wine glasses while you’re sipping the ‘tea’ they’re serving you out of Styrofoam cups…How bout this… if you really want something to say about me, go to my page and learn more about Ophelia Bisard, a seven year old angel from Savannah who died from a heart condition this May and the children?s book I am publishing in her honor.. research Mr. Dee who was fatally shot by the police in my city while still in handcuffs…. or youtube a video called ‘Jerry “Smitty” Hampton Tribute’ and see what a black male role model should really look like. Spend your time focusing on some real issues and quit thinking everyone is about money or attention.
No matter how many times I have been called a dummy by you all, I’m smart enough to know that attention fades quickly and it’s what you do with that attention that really matters. I am smart enough to know that even with all the evidence that proves I have been building my own platform and using the profits to send books- probably to some of your loved ones- miserable people will still find the negativity in it.
And to Apollo, I don’t feel sorry for you, but from a moral standpoint I will apologize for taking something you sealed and sent directly to me and showing it to world. You must understand though, this seems to be the only way I could get their attention and get an even bigger message out.
Yes, now I am using you for publicity but not for myself- for something much bigger than me. It’s just a sad reality of the measures you have to take in the type of society we live in. Don’t worry though, this you ‘Begging For Money’? headline is hot today but soon will be tomorrow’s news just like Trayvon Martin, Eric Garner, Sandra Bland, the Charleston Church Massacre, and everything else we sweep under the rug when the buzz fades. Nonetheless, while you internet goons/goonettes move on and find a new person to attack, I will still be sending books to inmates because believe it or not, people still need to be encouraged and despite our shortcomings there are some good people in this world.
Not sure if this letter will help convince you that I just maybe one of them, but what I am sure of is that while everybody has their faces in their phones reading me, somebody? somewhere? right now is reading my book.
Chile… I guess.
[Sidebar: She lost me when she said she’d never watched one episode of the housewives and had no clue who Apollo was.? She would have scored more points by just admitting that she wanted to write him because she knew he needed support. But I digress.]