Life Is Short But Wide

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Wild Stars Seeking Midnight Suns

Some People, Some Other Place

The Future Has a Past

The Wake of the Wind

Homemade Love

Some Soul to Keep

Some Love, Some Pain, Sometime

In Search of Satisfaction

Family

The Matter Is Life

A Piece of Mine

Joseph G. and Maxine R. Cooper, my parents
Paris W. Williams, my chile

PEOPLE IMPORTANT TO ME

Mrs. Velda Berkly of Berkeley, a kind friend, Dr. Vincent Harding, Alycia Pitts, niece, Dr. Martin L. King, Jr., Shooty & Becki Fermon, Bette Midler, Yvonne Westmorland of Oakland, Dr. Richardson of Marcus Books, Oakland, Danny Glover, Thespian, Senator Paul, and Sheila, Wellstone, Eartha Kitt, Dentrus Clay of Southern Café (Mmmmm), Oakland, Ga., Kim J. Johnson, of Oklahoma Library.

BookClub members of Seattle, Wa.: Jackie Roberts, Harriet Slye, Sylvia Bushnell, Edna C. Nunn, Vanetta Arnold, Liz Causby-Miles, Pat Coleman, Doris Hill, Nancy Palmer and Trish Tanner, to name a few.

I cannot tell you how much I love, admire & applaud Barack Obama and his fantastic, wonderful wife, Michelle Obama.

OTHER VERY IMPORTANT PEOPLE

The people of Iraq, and all other Peoples on this earth that are suffering from the manipulations of great iniquities of inhuman Mankind. May God have mercy on all of us.

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I wish to express my gratitude for the opportunity to have worked with Janet Hill on my last several books. I trusted her. She was indispensable. Always generous with her skillful knowledge, she was of great importance to this book. Her caring, no less than her patience, was of great importance to me. I have been very fortunate to have her working with me. I will sorely miss her, from the heart.

I welcome my new editor, Christian Nwachukwu, Jr. I have already benefited from his sharp, but cool, efficiency. I thank him for his extreme kindness’es in the past. Always.

I must thank Russell Perreault for all his kindness’es. He is always a wonderful, agile thinker, and a pleasure to work with.

I do thank Ray & Susan Glend of Chicago for keeping me well with their very effective products.

Curtis Bunn of the National Rook Club Conferences of Atlanta, Ga.

Doris Rush for welcoming me to Portland, Oregon.

I thank all my readers for reading. I really love all of you. I thank everyone at Doubleday for everything they do. I really appreciate everything anyone may do for me.

My name is Mrs. Hattie B. Brown, and I am ninety-one years old. My mother, Mrs. Mary Lee Brown, is 105 years old and she has almost all her own teeth. She eats very well, and is still living-, so I’m probably going to have a long life.

Now, me and my mother talk bout life all the time, that’s ninety-one years’ worth, and I have found out that life is sure full of lessons. I have seen most people just skip through their life and don’t pay no attention to what they are missing in life: the lessons!

The lessons that tell you it’s better to be right, and do right instead of wrong. That will save you from a whole lot of troubles as you go along your way. God runs my life so I don’t have to worry bout it.

I’m old, but I’m not too old for everything, and I’ve made some mistakes, but they were my mistakes and my business.

I
have seen so much, right alongside of my mother, with her teaching me about life and pointing things out to me.

Where we live, Wideland, was once a rural village, and still is a small town. When I was born there were mostly Whites, a few Blacks and Native Americans, even a few Chinese. People was too poor to own anybody, so it was mostly a free, live-where-you-want-to state, but it was still Oklahoma.

Same things happen in Wideland just like everywhere else-, they just not as slick and smart about it here. But everybody has their way, and that’s why I want to tell you about it. I have to tell this story in the shape of a “Y.” Two lives move down into one life. I will tell you one side (hers) first, then the other side (his) next, then these lives will meet and move on through life together. I will tell you when they meet, or you’ll just know.

There was a family here who lived such things, it could have taught me, or anybody who needed to know, how to live. What got me, as my mother told me this story, was how some people depend on “good luck” to get them through life. For me, I believe good luck is opportunity met with action.

But, again, as the story grew on my watch, I saw that these lives, all in one family, had many, many different turns. Ain’t that interesting though?

One person I thought would never have a life because her body was broken, in a way-, she couldn’t move much through her life, but I think, in the end, she might have had the most successful life. So you can’t tell about life just from looking.

The one I thought was the prettiest and the smartest has the least successful living, and the emptiest life, far as I could see.

Now, let me tell you about my mother and me-, neither is too good at counting these many people’s ages. So they will not be perfect in
order. There are some people in my own family and I don’t know their ages, so don’t expect me to remember everybody else.

I want to be clear about this, though. When I was watching their lives being lived, I was most drawn to Herman and Myine. I do know their ages. When Rose married that man, Leroy, I saw Herman hanging on the gate, wanting to come to the little wedding. He was bout nine or ten years old. Myine was born the next year, I think, so Herman and Myine are bout ten years apart in age.

The rest of all these different people in the story, I’m gonna tell you, I’m not sure bout so many of them, so don’t hold me accountable, cause I’m not. They are just there, part of this interesting life.

My mother is better at counting than I am, but she don’t always remember my age now. She sure does remember her own though. But if you are counting ages, you ain’t paying enough attention to the story no way.

The day comes when you look out over this world, and see things you want to do, but now … you can only wish you had done them. You get too old to do the things you once dreamed of doing, or just things you want to do even now.

Now … it’s another thing I really want you to know, it’s this. We were created by Jehovah God, and He is a God of Love, and no matter how long we live, we never lose the need to love, and for love. Love runs, and ruins, many lives.

My mama has told me many things about when there were slaves in our family. I didn’t know them, but I love them. I ain’t shamed of them. Cause they was down, and they got up cause they believed in God. Because of them, I feel God in my blood.

Now, my mama is saying, go ahead and tell you this story, and stop wasting time. So … I will begin.