Lillie
by
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“Sometimes I’m tossed and driven
Sometimes I don’t know where to roam
But I heard of a city called heaven
And I started to make it my home.”
“City Called Heaven”
“Come on, Lillie! You keep dragging behind. I’m a-tell on you if you don’t come on here!”
“I am coming, but I got to do summin’ first!”
“Whad you gonna do? Talk to God again? Ha, girl, you ’bout as crazy as a bed bug!”
“That’s alwight, Jennins. You can pick all you wanna. I know who I am and what it’s all about.” I don’t care what they think about me, ’cause I know you’re here with me.”
She disappeared out of Jennings’ sight. He was her older brother. He’d been told to look after Lillie on this errand day. But Jennings kept on walking, not thinking two cents about a lil’ ole girl who carried a small tattered bible everywhere she went instead of a rag doll like any other normal child her age. His warm cotton pants kept the spring chilling wind out of his bones. He had quite a ways to go, pass the downtown silk mill, but he had to deliver a message to his uncle Edgar.
They didn’t have any parents, Jennings and Lillie. Their older sister, Amanda, raised them both. They lived on the hill, in a section called Haymount. It was for the most part white, with the exception for this family, which happened to be black.
Amanda was the oldest. She was a gentle, yet strong woman of moderate build. Her thick, coarse hair was always arrayed in puffballs. Her hands were large and could wash and hang, and cook and clean, and comb and brush, and still have time for the flowers and honeybees. In the mornings you could hear her singing through the house in her clear, strong soprano voice “I am a poor pilgrim of sorrow; I’m tossed in this wide world alone. No hope have I for tomorrow; I’ve started to make heaven my home …”
There were two others she had to look after in addition to a house, which through debts had long lost its luster and gained overhead debts being paid through the wringing of water and the heating of the lead iron. At the time she was only fifteen. Jennings would soon be able to take on real work, easing the tension a bit for Amanda. But now was not then, and the entire household would suffer for a while to come. Luckily there was a cow and some chickens remaining as part of the leftovers from a once moderately prospering farm. The fields looked like abandoned lines of weeds sprouting and spilling up to the back door. It was all that she could do to keep the inside wooden floors clean and waxed by using the white products she had been given from her employers. Maybe that’s why she found such solace in Lillie, her little sister, who was by far the most unusual child she had ever encountered.
At times she would even question the possibility that perhaps she was adopted. But Amanda knew better because she was in the next room while Sally, the midwife, had attended her mother when Lillie was born. She was there too to witness her mother’s death. As Lillie lay in clean white linen cloth with spots of her mother’s blood
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About the Book
Why is the beginning life story of a southern African-American evangelist so captivating? Perhaps it is because like Melchizedek in the Bible, there are no known records that reflect her birth, only her death.
Lillie, the title of the novel, switches back and forth from third person omniscient to first person for each character. The true and somewhat fictionalized story, better coined as “faction”, spins a tale of three siblings and their lives. Fayetteville, North Carolina as the backdrop in the late 1800’s provides historical latitude.
This novel is one about family and the bond that exists, not unfamiliar to many stories about all families. Yet, this novel stands alone for two reasons. First, it is a factual story. It portrays blacks during the Reconstruction Period in America and how they lived. Second, the story depicts a universal thought of Blacks and religion, an important piece in most blacks’ lives.
Experience the lives of those whose tales are revealed on the pages. Stories of strife, love and triumph surrender themselves as messages of eternal faith and hope become the foundation deeply rooted in family.
About the Author
Brett Truitt, an educator, captures the lives of her ancestors whose pasts were revealed to her through generational stories and dreams. Captivated with the knowledge that her maternal grandmother was an apiarist, her great aunt an evangelist and her great uncle a traveler, she ventured to write her first novel.
Brett received her BS in English from Fayetteville State University, MA in English from Adelphi University, SAS/SDA from Brooklyn College and is currently pursuing her doctorate in Educational Administration and Supervision Education at St. John's University. She resides in Brooklyn, New York and has taught English for the past twenty-five years in a public high school and several colleges in the New York metropolitan area.