housework, and her home wasn’t always neat, though it did always have strong appeal. My girlfriends in high school loved to come with me to “Mammy’s house.” We’d sleep on pallets if we slept at all. She’d give us popcorn and make us laugh. She taught us to curl our hair by tearing old bed sheets into strips and wrapping our “tresses” around them and then tying the strips into knots all over our heads.

The boys in our class would come peek in the windows to see what we were up to. Mammy loved it that they were out there and would make a big fuss just to give them a little attention. She loved a good time and knew how to make sure everybody around her was having one. I learned from her that you can have fun and work hard at the same time. Also that you can take a hard situation and bring lightness to it.