My mother Patricia Lawrence came from a very good and loving solid family, although, her mother wasn’t a good example of what a parent should be my mother received a lot of love, care, and guidance from her grandparents, uncles, cousins, and her father.
On account of her own mother, as well as a few of her envious and jealous siblings, Patricia had it rough growing up yet succeeded within many of her endeavors and became a very responsible and very sufficient adult.
Patricia was a very intelligent woman who had many talents of her very own.
She use to play the saxophone, write music, sewed and design clothing, mastered the art of short hand (Gregg and Pittman), enjoyed and was very skilled in the fields of typing as she once attended college to become a stenographer.
During adolescence Patricia savored the periods of time she’d spend down in Halifax, Virginia with her grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins on her mother’s side of the family.
Down there in the south she worked on the farm, milking the cows, and attending to all of the other animals her family owned.
Our family had mules, bulls, cows, pigs, hens, roosters, baby chickens, turkeys, horses, dogs and cats.
The elders showed my very young mother along with her brother work ethics and responsibility.
At the ages of nine and ten they were taught how to labor numerous tobacco fields on the lands in which her family also owned.
They picked out all varieties of family grown crops in the gardens which some were sold to buyers and the rest was kept for our family to eat as they were established farmers who fed on their own natural and healthy produce.
Our family had their own businesses.
Patricia’s grandmother was a full-blooded Cherokee indian woman who made her own soaps and other handmade and homemade items.
Patricia’s grandfather was an african american man who headed their farm that he with the help of his wife, daughters, and sons kept prosperous.
Patricia’s great uncle, who was her mother’s uncle, owned and conducted his very own funeral home. When he died he passed the establishment on down to our close relatives.
Daily Living, By Miss LaToya 