Searching for Beautiful

About the Book

The first lie I told was in 1971 (my mother made me rehearse over and over before I walked to school that day). She said, “If anyone asks you why you’re walking funny, tell them you fell down!” I lied to my teacher, school nurse, school counselor, principal, and the police who frequented my bedside at Women’s Medical Hospital three to four times a month. My mother’s male friend raped me. It was so violent that when he was finished, both hip bones were no longer in their sockets. I was ten then. I lay at home for two more weeks while my mother told my two elder sisters to hold me down and cover my mouth while she slathered Watkins salve all over my legs and attempted to put both hip bones back in their sockets. She told me, “No one cares about you. No one is looking for you.” But I knew she was lying. I could hear the police knocking on the door from the third floor of our house. After taking the bus to the hospital, she made me walk to the emergency room. Once the doctors x-rayed my legs, they immediately scheduled surgery for the next morning. Each night, I spent time alone in the hospital with no family to care for me for five consecutive years.

About the Author

About the Author I have been a college student, a home health aide, a wife, a minister, and a world traveler. Talking to others has always been my passion. I make friends quick and enemies even quicker. I care for others the way I was cared for at the absolute worst times of my life. Surrounding me were folks who did not look like me, but their labor of love saved me from a life of bitterness and disdain for my fellow men. Today I have discovered that in order to right the wrongs in my own life, I have to go back to 1971, when I told the first lie to my teacher, nurse, counselor, principal, and the police who frequented my hospital room three to four times a month. This memoir is my attempt to find out who I am. I have been writing this story for over ten years. I love to read, and I love to write. I also love to write poetry. I am working on six other books I hope my readers will enjoy.