#MyMomIsBlackHistory

Hey everybody!! And welcome to the last Black History Month spotlight of 2013.  I have enjoyed bringing bits of Black History to you all this past few weeks.  I hope that maybe I taught you something new. 

For my last spotlight I want to highlight my mom.  In some of my past posts you might have heard me talk about my mom having cancer.  Even though her condition has gotten worse in the last few months, she has lived courageously with her cancer.  If I can have  a fourth of the strength she possesses, I will be able to do anything.

Exnor Marie Read (she goes by Marie) was born September 27, 1948 in Memphis, TN.  She was born into a world where everything was segregated: schools, bathrooms, bus seating, water fountains, parks, and so on and so forth.  For us born years later, this was abnormal but for my mom this was the only world she knew.  At the age of 6, my mom was called a nigger by a streetcar repairman because she was looking at him.  When this happen there was no Jessie Jackson or Al Sharpton to protest this happening.  Nope, she had to live with it.  Even though she lived in a time where racial  tensions were high, she did not hold any harsh feelings towards any race or raise her children to only think that our race was superior.  Marie would make friends of all races. 

Later on as child, my mom would go on to live with her teachers because of my grandma's mental illness.  Her foster mothers were not very supportive or nurturing towards her.  Whenever she wanted to do anything, her foster mothers would down play it.  Even when my mom tried to get involved in social justice her foster mothers vetoed it.  Marie wanted to do a sit-in with her fellow students.  She rushed home from work to get all her chores done before she asked for permission.  Her foster mothers refused to let her go (But after seeing how the folks were treated at the sit-in, she wasn't all that disappointed that she didn't go).

Only my mom would think it would be a good
idea to smoke with her oxygen tank.

After high school, she would have my older sister and three years later my older brother.  And then 17 years later, me.  She would join the military, become a nurses aid, work in a Chinese restaurant (I told you she made friends of all races) and later run her own business.  Despite not always having loving guardians, she gave nothing but love to her children.  She would raise three beautiful, independent children all by herself.  She would make friends all over Jacksonville, AR with her wit and humor.  And even with living with cancer, she would impress family, friends, doctors, and nurses with her strength.  I love my mom for every lesson she taught me.  I think about her and pray for her daily.  I will never be able to repay her for what she did for me but I can at least share with others how awesome my mom is!!