family

Five Facts about Me

5ThingsAboutMe

1. I never dreamed I’d live so close to the ocean, but I’ve always felt its pull.

2. If Nature is a magician, I’ve fallen under her spell.

3. I can’t explain this #NanaLove any more than I can count the stars.

4. Happy is my default setting.

5. “Your home should rise up to greet you,” says Nate Berkus, “And at the end of the day, it should ground you in a sense of peace.” I’m not an interior decorator by any means, but I think my home is comfortable and welcoming.

Day 6 of Susannah Conway’s #AugustBreak2015 photography challenge. The phrase of the day is 5 Facts about Me. Ask me again tomorrow, and I’d probably create a wholly different collage. Maybe I’d adjust the zoom lens, crop the pictures a little tighter. But this is pretty decent selfie, for a first attempt.

#TBT City of Refuge, woman of courage

Eveline and May Eden City at harvest Shown here, my sweet Nana, harvesting corn in hardscrabble soil for the Pentecostal preacher who convinced members of his congregation to sell all their earthly possessions and follow him to a “City of Refuge” in the high desert. She was 50 years old, or close to it. Even so, she slept in a tent with my pre-teen mother, winter and summer; endured harsh conditions that shape-shifted with each passing season. But if you look closely, you’ll see my maternal grandmother’s personality, writ large. True to form, her shoulders are squared and she’s bearing her burdens with a smile.

I visited the City of Refuge during one of my “Nancy Drew” adventures. This and other discoveries–and the ways in which they intersect with my own story– are included in my memoir, CAN I GET A WITNESS?

Rest in Peace, Beatrice “Colleen” Dixon Suva

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She thought she was his first wife; turns out, she was his fifth. I thought I had seven siblings; turns out, she’d given birth to two more. “Call me Beatrice,” she said, even though my father’s marriage certificate referred to her as “Colleen.” She trusted me enough to share her part of the story; I figured out the ways in which it intersects with mine. Rest in peace, Beatrice “Colleen” Dixon Suva: I will tell our story true.