STAY CONNECTED

I interviewed an African American woman named Emily, a few days ago, for a book I’m writing. I’m in the research stage. The location of the book is Louisiana and takes place in 1940 through 1965. I can’t say too much about it because often a book starts out one way and ends up being completely different.

Miss Emily is in her eighties and has lived an amazing life; she grew up in Florida with her parents. In the 1960s she left her home and traveled to Tennessee where she went to a Black Presbyterian College and received her degree. After college she traveled to Chicago for her first job as a teacher. She survived one frigid winter in Chicago before she left for a warmer position in Los Angeles.

It’s funny how big and small the world is, in Los Angeles Miss Emily taught at Russell Elementary, a school that the kids that lived next door to me went to. She never taught at the school I attended. I would meet Miss Emily decades later through her daughter who I met at work. I invited her daughter to my church’s Women’s Conference and Miss Emily attended the conference.

Miss Emily left home to pursue her education and while at college she boycotted and marched for civil rights. She did this far away from home and family. Can you imagine being a young woman away from home for the first time, travelling in the South during such a tumultuous time? When I asked her how she did what she did, her answer proved how much we have lost with integration.

Miss Emily answered, “Wherever you go find the church. Christian people will take you into their homes and take care of you.”

As a child I remember my parents opening up their home to family and friends to stay until they could find a job and a place of their own. That is what a lot of Black people did in that time. We were a community that looked out for each other, we were connected by a common struggle. Our communities are not bound together as they once were. We struggle to make it in this world individually instead of collectively as we once did.

Miss Emily gave me valuable insight into what life was like when she was growing up. She made me want to be stronger, more courageous and dream bigger.

Thank you, Miss Emily, for answering my call even though it was your nap time, you are an inspiration.

I hope to convey the sense of community that we once had in the book that I’m working on. If I can achieve that feeling, it will be something to be proud of. I’m excited and looking forward to talking to more people, gaining more insight into the way of life that Miss Emily, my parents, and your parents may have lived.

WHY I WRITE.

I write because I want to document how we live, love, and survive. I want my books to capture the feeling of home.

My mother and my grandmothers influence my writing just as they influenced how I view the world. Their pearls of wisdom were not appreciated in my youth, but I understand the wisdom of their words now.

I always gravitated to older people when I was younger. I liked to listen to their stories but unfortunately their stories are tattered and faded fragments that I have mostly forgotten. I remember recording my great-grandfather’s story for a high school assignment. How I wish I had that recording, because I can’t remember the questions or the answers; but I remember the man. I remember the essence of the people that are no longer here with me.

I try to saturate the pages of my book with their essence, with our stories. Bittersweet is the story of first love and all the confusion of it. Finally, Doing Me! is the story of 4 women assessing their lives and doing what it takes to be happy. Rolling In The Deep, yet to be published, is the story of love for a child, husband, wife, friend, and neighborhood. This story has the complexity of a fine wine. It has a mystery, a ghost tale, love, and a changing landscape of a South Central, Los Angeles neighborhood.

My books are available on Amazon and Bookbaby Publishers. Your support is needed and appreciated!

Bittersweet, by Evelyn C. Fortson https://store.bookbaby.com/book/bittersweet1 or http://www.amazon.com/dp/B095FQKYT7

Finally Doing Me! by Evelyn C. Fortson https://store.bookbaby.com/book/finally-doing-me or https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09TG3NMTH

Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mother’s Day

Happy Mother's Day to every woman that has cared for, protected, went without, and prayed over a child’s life. Happy Mother’s Day to the women that carried their child in their wombs or only with their hands. Happy Mother’s Day to the women that did the best that they could to raise a kind, loving, self-sufficient human being.

Some of us mothers will be celebrated by our children and some of us will wait for a phone call that may not come, while others only have memories of happier mother’s days.

I’m not a poet, but I wrote a poem about my mother for a creative writing class I took last year that I would like to share.

My Mother’s Voice

Her voice has not faded, not for me yet

A sweet quality that was hers alone

I mimic her words, so I won’t forget

They stay in my head, reside in my bones

Just when I think that her sweet voice has gone

Like twirling leaves blown by a phantom wind

I hear her voice singing a sweet, sweet song

Quaking like the shout of a hundred men

If I had known that our days were ending

I would have made more time for you and me

Memories to keep me from descending,

Into a space that would be hard to flee

Pictures can’t replace the feel of your face

But the sound of your voice---it does embrace

I didn’t always celebrate my mother on Mother’s Day, sometimes all she got was a phone call, but she always knew that she was loved.

For the women waiting by the phone, just know that your children will always remember how much you loved them, and that is a gift that is more precious than gold.