by Dr. E. Faye Williams
(Trice Edney Wire) – In 2022, I became seriously ill for the first time in my life. I could’ve stayed in bed feeling sorry for myself. I could’ve asked “Why Me, Lord?” There was still so much ahead of me I wanted to do, and giving up was not one of the choices Mother had taught me. Like many Black women, she worked all her life to give her 9 children the best she could —even times when it was obvious she was ill. My father had the luxury of being able to walk away when times were hard, but Mother stayed the course and took care of us. She had 9 with neither of us being old enough to go out and get a job so we could help her with the bills.
We never missed a meal. We never stayed out of school more than a day for something she needed us to do. We walked miles in the rain, sleet and occasional snow until Mother figured out how to get a bus to pick up children in our area.
We lived so far back in the woods that I didn’t even know the place by its real name where we lived. All I ever knew then was that we lived on Little River! I later learned the name of the place was Melrose, Louisiana
My mother worked every single day, except Sunday. That was always church day. I never heard her complain. She never allowed us to say negative things about anybody—including my father who’d walked out on us when I was only 11 years old. We always had to assist our neighbors who often didn’t seem to have the same work ethic as Mother required of us—so when our neighbors needed help, we helped them to do whatever they needed to have done.
We could never say “bad words” to anybody—including our sisters. Our two brothers were much younger when several girls and I were already leaving home for marriage or for college or for jobs, so we had to learn what some today call boys jobs,too!
You probably won’t read my article before the official Mother’s Day observance, but that’s okay. Whenever you read what I am saying about mothers, they should be recognized every day. My mother went to heaven right at 100 years old. My friend, Dick Gregory, always said at 99 plus a few months allowed us to say she made 100 because you have to count the 9 months she spent in her mother’s belly!
I began this note to you to say that even if you didn’t get a chance to spend Mother’s Day with your Mom, don’t forget to do something for her if she is still on this earth to thank her, and if she has gone on to be with the Lord, then do something everyday that would have made her proud of you. It’s never too late to show appreciation, and mothers always deserve it.
As soon as my sisters, meaning Jotaka Eaddy, Donna Brazile, Sherrilyn Ifill, Stacey Abrams, Janaia Nelson, Latasha Brown and Win With Black Women were already preparing to guide us on what we should be doing to preserve our voting rights after the horrible case in Louisiana that would take away our right to be represented by someone who has our best interest at heart. Just like mothers, they didn’t sit around and moan and groan about how terrible the case called Louisiana v. Callais is regarding our voting rights. They reminded us of our responsibilities to register people to vote, to teach them the issues and never forget our responsibility to vote!
Just like mothers, they went right to work to give us guidance by spelling out what we can do to make positive things happen for us despite the negatives.
Dr. E. Faye Williams is President of The Dick Gregory Society.
