Telling It Like It Is
The Remarkable Life Experiences of My Aunt Edna
by
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Welcome Back Readers (font: ancestry SF, 48?) I’m so glad you’ve come to spend some time with me. This is quite a pleasure, especially since some of us haven’t been together since I published The Best is Yet to Come in 2010. Shortly thereafter, in 2013, my autobiography, Growing Up in the Nation’s Capital: We Made it but It took an Entire Village became available. I am fortunate that some of you checked back with me a year later and read my poetry book, My Lovely Golden Rose: A Lifetime of Poetic Reflections and Precious Memories. If you did, I thank you for allowing me to enter your mind and heart though the beauty of poetry. I am ever so pleased that you’ve come back again because I have a most wonderful person to share with you. This time I have the privilege of introducing my 92-year old Aunt Edna, who is my mother’s sister and the Henderson family matriarch. For me and my family, she’s always been very special. I think you may know the very same Auntie I’m talking about. She’s the one who is the closest family member to you and the person who is the greatest blessing--no matter what your family bible says about kinship or the smiling images of photos you see mirrored in your family tree. As we begin Aunt Edna’s biography, I promise to be faithful to what she says, to whom she says it, and most importantly how she says it. Aunt Edna loves people as much as I do. Both of us are honored to have the opportunity to pour out our hearts and thoughts to you, our readers, and to do so proudly and personally. Therefore, when we give you advice, tell you jokes, wear our hearts on our sleeves and bawl our eyes out with you, especially during our dear little chats together, please know that we mean everything we say in the most sincere and respectful way possible. It goes without saying that without you--our readers and our willing and captive audience--this book would not exist. We hope you’ll be enlightened by our stories, and that you’ll profit from the way Aunt Edna tells them. We also encourage you to accept our challenges and savor the adventures in the best of spirits--and if need be, take it all in with the tiniest grain of salt. Aunt Edna is a person who loves to talk, and though I’ve worked hard to get organized and to be authentic in depicting the most accurate portrait of her, sometimes it isn’t as easy as it may seem. First of all, she has a penchant for chain talking, changing lanes and jumping to unrelated subjects without putting out any hand signals. As Aunt Edna would tell you, we’ll just have to wait and see how it turns out. Life’s funny Like that… Aunt Edna is a lady of expressions, and the one you’ve just read is very much loved and the most frequently used. Just like the proverb: a picture is worth a thousand words, she uses adages, idiomatic expressions and she even throws in a few old wives tales that all of you must have heard many times. The funniest part about her time-tested sayings, however, is that if they don’t exactly fit the circumstances, she makes them conform, creating a combination of the most uniquely exotic terms you could ever imagine--even if she has to force that round peg into a square hole. Amazingly enough, she is good at matching well-known proverbs to the precise situation in every way, shape and form. You’ll recognize some of these quaint titles at the beginning of the some chapters. Others are scattered here and there throughout the paragraphs as if they wish to jump out at you and say, “Got you!” At times you’ll have to read through entire passages to taste the sweet nectar or grasp a sparkling facet of whichever radiant gem might be hidden therein. I believe this will be to your advantage. If not, I hope that you’ll find that our myriad array of tasty morsels is certainly as good as it gets, or as Aunt Edna would say, “the icing on the cake.” As her biographer, I am pleased to present my Aunt Edna to you, my dear readers. I’m ecstatic that you chose to explore the adventures of our wonderful Auntie, and I can assure you that you’ll be glad you did. I hope the love quilt so carefully sewn here will be as enriching as it is rewarding, and I sincerely thank you for allowing me to share this remarkable individual with you.
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About the Book
My historic biography offers me an opportunity to share an amazing individual with you, my ninety-two-year-old Aunt Edna. The best part of writing it was the joy of spending months in intimate contact with her. Believe me, I relished every hour being enlightened while in her extraordinary company. At times, we savored quiet lunches at restaurants; sometimes we sipped tea or Sprite. But most importantly, I spent captivating moments in her company—wrapped in her love, enchanted—as she recounted her philosophies about life, pausing here and there to reflect and finally dancing her life’s red carpet. Allow me a minute to get my needle and thread. I’ll be ready to cross-stitch a colorful embroidery of Aunt Edna’s life. Hopefully, the result will be a stunningly detailed love quilt on which each stitch is carefully aligned. The completed masterpiece will tell you the story of her life. I’ll do my best to reproduce her portrait without unnecessary alterations and distractions. First and foremost, I’ll attempt to turn the reins over to her and let her tell it like it is. In other words, inasmuch as possible, you’ll get her life’s journey in unbiased, unabridged format straight from the horse’s mouth. She has always been a cultural aficionado with a touch of class when it comes to her social circuit—going to cinemas, operas, and dinners in downtown Washington, DC, more often than I do. Her diminutive physical statue is totally overshadowed by the larger-than-life essence, unabated charm, and integrity that radiate from her. And while she possesses so many positive attributes, she surrounds herself in modesty. Her humility is deeply rooted and sincere. She absolutely refuses to boast, often dismissing her entire life as being ordinary, insisting that she leads an uninteresting life. I’ll contradict her with two words: au contraire!
About the Author
The author is a native Washingtonian but can boast a few highlights from abroad. A student of the Spingarn High School College Preparatory and Business Career Honors Programs, she began working at the DC Parole Board before her graduation. She received a BA degree in the romance languages from Howard University (with Phi Beta Kappa and cum laude honors) and attended the University of Maryland on scholarship for a master of art degree in Spanish language and literature. Awarded a grant from the International Institute of Education Student Exchange Program, she taught in two French high schools—one year in Avignon and another in Nice, France. Career positions included the DC Parole Board, African-American Institute, International Military Sports Council, and the Peace Corps. She was employed for twenty years with the US National Central Bureau, Interpol, Department of Justice, and in 2009, she retired from the Quality Control & Standards Unit, Language Services Section, with the Federal Bureau of Investigation. This is the author’s fourth publication. Her first book, The Best Is Yet to Come, a motivational book for the health of mind and body, was published in 2010. Her autobiographical book, Growing Up in the Nation’s Capital: We Made It but It Took an Entire Village, was published in 2013. Poetry followed in 2014 with her third book, My Lovely Golden Rose: A Lifetime of Poetic Reflections and Precious Memories. The author is a self-proclaimed art lover who enjoys all music, especially classical, and the theater. She also enjoys interpreting and reciting poetry, storytelling, and teaching. She has a passion for participating in speech and writing contests in the Powertalk International Training Organization, winning numerous club and Blue Ridge Region speech contests. She also won several international and multiple Blue Ridge Region writing contests.