Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book. Sample Book Insights: #1 Mama was a tall, long-waisted, young Black woman with the deep-set paisley eyes and high, full cheekbones of her Filipina and half-Cherokee grandmothers. She was a beautiful woman, but she took pride in controlling her own destiny. #2 I was born in 1984 when my parents were still living with their parents. My mom was seventeen when she got pregnant with me, and my dad was sixteen, a sophomore in high school. My mom was reluctant to be away from me, her first baby. She appreciated the help, but she wanted out from under all of it. #3 My mother, who was twenty-three, had two toddlers underfoot. She had given up her dreams of the military, but she was determined to make something of herself. She attended nursing school all day in Paris, Texas, and worked the evening shift as an aide in a nursing home. #4 When I started kindergarten, Jazz was left alone, collecting the last of the sweet plums, feeding stray pups, and riding bikes with our cousin Chauncy while Mama slept off the night shift. Each day, she waited anxiously for the mailman at the big tin mailbox in front of our house.