There Is Sunshine After The Rain
During the pandemic I have heard from so many people going through life's struggles. I wanted to revisit my fifth book There Is Sunshine After the Rain that I wrote that is a memoir that covers the darkest moments in my life and the paths that I had to travel to get to my sunshine.
This book has poetry sprinkled throughout the chapters because it was my first love. Since I was a child I was writing my feelings that I hadn't even understood the meaning of what was going on. From having the first crush, facing death, and the stages that life had planned that I had to navigate through.
A lot of times we get caught up being in our personal storms that we feel like the world has let us down. We don't see the end in sight and unfortunately there are some who decide to take matters into their own hands and commit suicide. Not realizing that there is support no matter if it is friends, family, or support groups. We forget that there will be sunshine after the rain and we have to be patient and wait out the storm.
People ask what is Life's Struggles?
Life's struggles can vary from being a toxic relationship, being harassed at a job , being bullied, being a caregiver and the stress that comes along with it. There is so many challenges that we face and if we aren't prepared to handle what we are facing it can lead to depression, grief, and worse death.
Book Excerpt:
Growing up in Waterbury, Connecticut, the youngest of a blended family of thirteen children, I knew I was special. There was never a time that I didn’t feel my parents didn’t love me, protect me, and weren’t my best friends. From the time I was a toddler and my parents were working class, I was taken care of by my aunts, brothers, and sisters until my parents arrived home. The highlight I fondly remember was being picked up from kindergarten by my father. In the doorway, I would see this tall caramel-colored man with his hat tilted to the side of his head, after he got off work. I would run into his arms and he’d lift me and give me a kiss. Beaming with happiness, I felt like I was six feet tall like him, and couldn’t wait to tell him about my day. That was the beginning of our journey where I would go for rides with my father across the state, talking about life and listening to his stories.
My mother was twenty-one years younger than my father, and her personality was just bubbling with love. She would take in strangers and feed them. After working at a facility and seeing how they treated the foster adults, she became a foster mother. She spent the checks she received for taking care of the four women on dressing them like the rest of our family. There was never any difference. We were a family that included Louise, Helen, Gladys, and Jacqueline. At five years old, I was introduced to my first foster sister, and the word foster was never used again.
Faith was very instrumental in my parents’ lives, especially my mother’s. She had gone through many trials and tribulations and knew that it was nobody but God. As she became more active in the church, she went from missionary to evangelist, then fought to become an elder. During that time, women weren’t thought of as preachers and especially if they’d married twice; it was frowned upon. While a freshman in high school, I was able to witness my mother being ordained as a pastor. She was the first African American female to deliver the invocation at a veteran’s observance in our town. She strived to reach her goals and studied to earn more certificates. She wanted to be taken seriously and there were those who didn’t want a woman in their pulpits. Watching her from the background, she was teaching me how to survive life’s struggles with faith.
When she was disappointed and hurt by the treatment she received, she held her head high and didn’t let anyone know she was hurt until she came home. Any obstacle placed in front of her, she found another way to get around it. I grew up feeling like the world was mine and didn’t know what challenges were, because I always accomplished what I wanted from modeling school, president of school clubs, and jobs. It would later lead to my demise because when I didn’t place in pageants, barely graduated from college due to a grade, or received my first unfavorable review at work, I didn’t know how to handle it.
What I loved about my father was every morning and evening before he climbed into and out of bed, he was on his knees praying. If you happened to not knock on the door and walked in, you would hear him having a talk with Jesus, as the older saints explained. You knew not to interrupt, but I would stand there and listen and wonder would I ever have that type of faith. He had a large book, a bible study guide, that he was always reading. Between reading and having dialogue with my mother about the sermons preached at church, I was amazed at how much they knew.
My father and I would talk while sitting watching television, and he was puzzled at how many answers I knew on the game shows. Yet when looking at my report card, it didn’t reflect my knowledge. He challenged me and I was blessed to show him before he died that I could be on the honor roll in high school, graduate college, and, though I’d left Connecticut, was able to tell him I had a job where I would be able to take care of myself and my mother. As he was transitioning to leave this earth, he didn’t have to worry.
So between the two of my parents, I knew from my mother that when in doubt—pray; you don’t know what to do—pray; and when all else fails—pray. She prayed for everyone: for their marriage, sickness, and if they were in trouble, she would pray. My father—on the other hand—always said, “Work hard, don’t pay to be liked. Because when you stop paying and no one pays for you, they were never your friends, but users.” And, “Ladies don’t be out late at night, because the only things you will see are dogs and prostitutes.” Two opposite extremes, and I didn’t know at the time that all the wisdom they were sharing I would see for myself later in life. That faith is what you need to make it through any struggles in life.
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