Sleeping With the Angels- Introduction: Who Am I
Posted: Monday, July 25, 2011
by Jessie I Snyder
TRUE INSPIRATIONS
Can you give me some honest feedback this is the first installment of my autobiography. Excerpt from book:
INTRODUCTION: WHO AM I
To my darling daughter Deondra,
Yes, baby girl this is for you. You might not be here to read this; however, this is a tribute to your life. I am writing the story of my life to encourage others who may have faced some sort of tragedy in their lives. I want to give inspiration and motivation to show anyone that they too can overcome any tragic situation, the only requirement is to have a positive attitude and outlook on life. Face any tragedy head on and keep your feet on solid ground.
Being the youngest of four girls, I grew up being pampered and spoiled. My mother had to give up my three sisters Mary Ann, Donna Mae and Viola Kay 11 & ½ years before my birth due to financial circumstances. It was the 1960s and it was almost impossible to get assistance from the state, especially if you were already married. Her husband Herbert was an alcoholic and was extremely jealous, he would lock my mother in the house while he went to work and forbade her from working yet he refused to take care of their children.
Without the help of her parents who were old-fashioned and believed that if you made the mistake of getting pregnant it was up to you and your husband to care for the children. So one day she was able to get free, and she took the girls and moved in with one her sisters. She got a job so as to make ends meet, and would leave the girls with her sister to care for them while she worked. But she soon found out that the sister’s boyfriend was molesting the two oldest girls. So rather than subject them to that kind of abuse she was forced to give them up for adoption. She didn’t want to because she loved her children dearly, but she felt that was the only option she had left.
Then in 1972 she met my father Michael Tate, they had a short fling and she became pregnant with me. My father was only 19 and was still young and carefree. He refused to accept the responsibility of having a baby. He wanted my mother to get an abortion; however, since she had already lost her other three girls she refused to lose me too. So she they went their separate ways and she hitchhiked from LaFayette Indiana to Cleveland Tennessee where she lived for a couple of months, then before I was born then she moved to Nashville, Tennessee. She found a job as a waitress at Irene’s Diner on Woodland Street in East Nashville. She worked right up until the day she went into labor. Then she had me and she was determined that nobody would take me away from her. Then my mother Fredia took a leave of absence from her job until she recovered.
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Top-level comments on this article: (2 total)It is a good introduction. I have not pubished a book myself .. have not done Introduction. But here are a few comments. Deondra, I think I would add her identy in there; add the word - daughter. - the sentence, My mother Fredia ... would tie-it-up, maybe with saying, she was on leave from her job.
I liked it , and it made me want to read more.
We do have a great name, don`t we. I do know the meaning of it.
Write on, sister.
Looking forward to reading MORE! I don't think any of us were "grown up" in the Cleaver family of Leave it to Beaver.... there are stories to tell, aren't there?
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