immediate family
Blood makes you related, loyalty makes you family.
Clay Street
Before I write anything about my life, I often start off with a reality or a so-called flaw about myself. It's my way of working through my own patterns and behaviors and simply being as transparent as I can be as I navigate my relationships with other people.
By Xavia Johnson6 years ago in Families
She Paves
This beautiful lady in the photo above is Hodayah. She is a nurse, therapist, teacher, chef, driver, respected janitor, comedian, and my everything. However, professionally she is known to be my mother. These titles she attained through her loving and nurturing air that she boldly carries and exercises throughout all aspects of her life. Whether its dealing with her children, grandchildren, friends and friendly strangers, she is always kind and supportive.
By Human Being6 years ago in Families
Celebrating Herstory
Women didn’t divorce their husbands in 1930. Especially not without a job or way to support your children. But not my grandmother. She was not going to let her sons see her be beaten and abused or worse yet to grow up without a mother at all. So as difficult and dangerous as the decision may have been, she chose to live. Lilly Mae was a woman, an African American woman, and she was a single-mother in the South, during the Great Depression. The odds, were definitely not in her favor. But Lilly Mae, had come from a long line of strong women. Women of faith, educated, and resourceful women. Her mother was an educator. She was not the first woman in my blood line to defy the odds and certainly not the last. As I thought of the women that I felt deserved honor during Women’s History Month, I had to pay respect to my grandmother and mother. They have both taught me how not only to survive, but how to thrive, even in the midst of tremendous trials.
By Dr. Tonia The Communication Coach6 years ago in Families
My Husband, My Hero
The Past At first, it did not occur to me that he was abusive. He didn’t hit me. It wasn’t until after I left that I realised it was abuse. Every type of abuse except he didn’t hit me. He shouted, he lied, he stole, there was financial abuse and gaslighting (I didn’t know what that was until I read about it and realised that’s exactly what was going on). I wasn’t even sure he knew he was doing it. When he took money from me to spend on drink, I don’t know if it occurred to him that it was wrong or if he thought it was somehow acceptable.
By Sapphire Ravenclaw6 years ago in Families
One Wedding Day
My mother woke me with a tender swipe above my cheek and for a second as my eyes seem to draw to focus I thought I saw my mother in her younger years instead of now with grey peppered locks that hung to the left side of her aged face with her glowing life filled eyes of my childhood.
By Sabiyya Brown6 years ago in Families
In Sickness and in Health . . . and in motherhood.
I wanted to write a story about someone other than my mother. You see, mothers can be tricky, because they don’t always do what’s fair or what’s fun at the moment, and they’re really easy to see as imperfect once you realize they’re human. My mother, though, I realized while thinking of a public figure like Michelle Obama or Hilary Clinton, to write about, isn’t just my mom, she’s a woman who immigrated to America from Haiti at the age of 17 and raised me and my siblings in the worst worst circumstances possible, in order to give us a chance at life.
By A. L. Michael6 years ago in Families
MyInspiration
Our Mother are our teachers and educators and they are the most powerful influential people we know. My mother spoke to me when I was very young that she believed in hard work and her mother spoke to her about being a artist of many talents. As time went on I witnessed this is what I would call a blessing and this is what moved me to write about her.
By Queen Sheba 6 years ago in Families
Virtue y Fortuna
I’ve always been quiet. I have always thought to think before I speak. I think it’s served me well actually, and you were a quiet baby too, like I was. And now you’re often told to have a voice. You’re told this so much by so many people that you can barely get a word in edge ways. And I want you to know that having a voice doesn’t mean you have to say something brave or tell the entire world. You don’t have to speak words. Simply choose. Make a choice and be true to how you feel. that’s your voice, and it is shockingly and rightfully valid. I want you to know that when you choose to use it, the right person will hear you.
By Cassie Lilly6 years ago in Families
Liberated Voice
I stand by the Maori proverb that says, “My success is not mine alone, it is that of the collective”. This quote helps me remember that as I grow, I am not alone, there are countless other women and ancestors that have paved my way. I know that their legacy lives within me, they are cheering me on, and that one day our voices will unite and continue to cheer on the next woman.
By Alishia Mccullough6 years ago in Families
What's Not Allowed? What Living in a Pandemic Has Taught Me About Autism
They say that in order to understand something, try it on. Step into its shoes. Wear it for a while; walk a mile in those shoes, and then you will know, really know what it is to be something else, someone else.
By Teresa Hedley6 years ago in Families
The Value Of A Memory
My family had some odd habits when I was growing up. One of the more particularly odd habits of my father was that electricity wasn't permitted in my home on Sundays. No television. No telephone. No stereos. We would gather in the living room or at the dining room table after church and we would play games, tell stories or record cassette tapes to send to the family members that were scattered across the United States. I was a child and thought my father's idea was absolutely stupid. Why in the world couldn't we just be like any other normal family and gather around the television every evening? That we didn't own a television, an action that was taken by my father as a means of discipline, during that period of time further fueled my desire to not be a part of the family gathering. Just as I look back and remember that feeling of "my family is sooooo weird", I can't help but smile at the warm memory of my family gathered around a bulky cassette recorder, before time and circumstances separated we five. It was fun in its purest form. I'm sure the cassette tapes have long been discarded, but the memory will play in my mind forever.
By Phoenixx Fyre Dean6 years ago in Families
