Ophelia M. Turner
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MOMMA’S LITTLE BASTARD takes place when being called a bastard was the worst stigma to place on a child, and the epitome of insults for its mother. So it was for Leanna Brown. This story chronicles the experiences of one such child. After learning that her beloved “Daddy,” Marcus Wright was, in fact, not her father and having her comfortable and happy childhood shattered by the vindictive words of his mother, when she told ten year old, Leanna, “You ain’t got no daddy. You ain’t never had no daddy. You ain’t nothing but your Momma’s little Bastard.” Her words of destruction set a sword of vengeance in little Leanna’s heart. With a passion she becomes obsessed to find her birth father, the man who she believed ruined her life. In “Momma’s Little Bastard,” Leanna remembers her childhood and the fateful day when she learned the truth. Facing the truth and the torment she endured caused her used her pain, as well as that of her mother, to fuel her quest to find her father and punish him for all the suffering that he his action had inflicted upon them. This story is a journey that leads into a past of suffering, deception, familial strife, torment, that finally bring to Leanna, self-discovery and ultimately forgiveness to the unforgivable, as well as healing to the desperately wounded. Momma’s Little Bastard allows you to experience the painful living in a then world, that today’s world has forgiven and almost forgotten, except by those who lived it..
Ophelia M. Turner, writer, a speaker, and a lover of children. . Her children ballet Moonflower” was endowed by the Council of the Arts. Besides being the author of two other novel, “Caribbean Seed “ and Caribbean Heat, she was featured in “Beloved,” a Jonathan Demme movie production, starred in Snipes, with Nelly, and featured in an episode of Jerry Bruckheimer’s, “Cold Case”.
She is the mother of six children. Two daughters are deceased. She is currently raising her adopted five year old son, Semaj,
In the last few decades we Americans have been lucky to hear clear, and profound and telling voices from our South. That part of this country has seen forms of social upheaval, illness and poverty that no other part has seen. It is important that we read these voices since they tell us plenty that we may not have experienced. Ophelia M. Turner is a southern voice.
In these last few decades we Americans have also been privy to the voices of the poor those people whom others believe have no voice. Yet when we listen well enough, we learn great lessons from our poor sisters and brothers. Ophelia M. Turner is another voice of the poor. She was raised as poor as the heroine in Mamma’s Little Bastard.
By 2005, we have also been privileged to hear women’s voices explaining in great clarity and with power the realities of their lives, realities that are important for all of us to understand. Ophelia M. Turner the writer is another woman’s voice.
And up to today we have also had the good fortune to hear African-Americans voices, trying to help the rest of us understand what their experiences mean to them and to the rest of us. Ophelia M. Turner is another African-American writer.
In Ophelia M. Turner, we have all four of these groups represented in one writer, born and raised Southern, raised poor, woman, and African American. Each group has experienced considerable hurdles in being heard and understood, so that their lives will be viewed as meaning-full, that their courage will be viewed as honorable, that their experience will be seen as just as powerful as members of the rich, the famous, the white, the Northern, and the owning class.
The further people are from power (in whatever form) to communicate their own experiences and values, the more important it is that ways be provided for their voices to be heard. Why? Because in order to be seen by others, the less visible, less available people in the human experience need to be read and heard and understood, all human experiences are part of the human story.
As I was completing twenty-six years of teaching English at Community College of Philadelphia, I saw Professor Susan Peterson, Assistant Chair of the English Department, post a notice asking for an editor. Looking for more work, I cheerfully said, “I’ll take that please.” Later that day, I telephoned Ophelia M. Turner and the fun began. Three months later I finished editing her 400-plus typescripts and sat with Ophelia, going over page after page of text. Sometimes I taught her about quotations and punctuations; at other times she taught me about Southern jargon and vocabulary. Mostly we learned to appreciate each other’s vigor, zest, and drive.
