Posted on 05/28/2014 1:20:46 PM PDT by NYer
Writer and poet Maya Angelou died this morning, according to a family statement. She was found by her caregiver and was reportedly been in poor health and had canceled recent scheduled appearances.
Harold Augenbraum, from the National Book Foundation, said that Angelou’s “legacy is one that all writers and readers across the world can admire and aspire to.”
But while most people are aware of her professional work, they don’t know Angelou’s personal background as well.
Angelou had one son Guy, whose birth was described in her first autobiography, one grandson, and two great-grandchildren. She became pregnant as a teenager and could have sought an illegal abortion but, instead, decided to keep her baby. In an essay that originally appeared in Family Circle magazine, Angelou called that the best decision of her life.
That essay appears below:
“When I was 16, a boy in high school evinced interest in me, so I had sex with him — just once. And after I came out of that room, I thought, Is that all there is to it? My goodness, I’ll never do that again! Then, when I found out I was pregnant, I went to the boy and asked him for help, but he said it wasn’t his baby and he didn’t want any part of it.
I was scared to pieces. Back then, if you had money, there were some girls who got abortions, but I couldn’t deal with that idea. Oh, no. No. I knew there was somebody inside me. So I decided to keep the baby.
My older brother, Bailey, my confidant, told me not to tell my mother or she’d take me out of school. So I hid it the whole time with big blouses! Finally, three weeks before I was due, I left a note on my stepfather’s pillow telling him I was pregnant. He told my mother, and when she came home, she calmly asked me to run her bath.
I’ll never forget what she said: “Now tell me this — do you love the boy?” I said no. “Does he love you?” I said no. “Then there’s no point in ruining three lives. We are going to have our baby!”
What a knockout she was as a mother of teens. Very loving. Very accepting. Not one minute of recrimination. And I never felt any shame.
I’m telling you that the best decision I ever made was keeping that baby! Yes, absolutely. Guy was a delight from the start — so good, so bright, and I can’t imagine my life without him.
At 17 I got a job as a cook and later as a nightclub waitress. I found a room with cooking privileges, because I was a woman with a baby and needed my own place. My mother, who had a 14-room house, looked at me as if I was crazy! She said, “Remember this: You can always come home.” She kept that door open. And every time life kicked me in the belly, I would go home for a few weeks.
I struggled, sure. We lived hand-to-mouth, but it was really heart-to-hand. Guy had love and laughter and a lot of good reading and poetry as a child. Having my son brought out the best in me and enlarged my life. Whatever he missed, he himself is a great father today. He was once asked what it was like growing up in Maya Angelou’s shadow, and he said, “I always thought I was in her light.”
Years later, when I was married, I wanted to have more children, but I couldn’t conceive. Isn’t it wonderful that I had a child at 16? Praise God!”
Amazing. My mother had the same experience.
Ping!
This story is a bit misleading, imho.
Thanks for posting this.
Wow. I like her now. I hope this is a big part of the inevitable parade of people celebrating her life. I’m pretty sure it won’t be but I can hope.
How so?
This is very sweet. I had no idea, thanks for posting.
Me, blah, blah, me, blah blah blah, and then again, me. She was on par with the known domestic terrorist Bill Ayers. Google him and have a barf bag handy. Google her and be prepared to pass out.
That's when these words would have counted the most.
Yeah. It won’t be.
I read a bio of her.
Same here.
Bump
What a beautiful testimony. It has changed my opinion of her. Thanks for posting.
I do believe she was the madam of a whore house in her long ago days.
She was also a prostitute
I feel sorry for prostitutes. I have no respect for madams. Maybe she repented this, I don’t know.
met her in Winston at my old job. She needed a video made and my employer did the filming, editing, etc. I was the lowly secretary that delivered her lunch, messages, etc.
She spent several days at our studio with Oprah’s boyfriend, Stedman. She was famous for a quote that went something like “I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” She learned that from practice.
Other than that experience, I had never met anyone so uppity and entitled. And I am 54 years old. Not a humble bone in her body. Maybe she hated me because I was WHITE...not rich...whatever. She was a hateful woman to those she considered beneath her...or those she imagined as the spawn of her oppressors.
Regardless, condolences to her family.
The femiNazis are going to go apple-shiite over this story.
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