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Commentary
*Annie’s second husband Amos, was named
"Rat."
**The "taxes" to which Mama makes
reference were probably property taxes on her thirty acres of
land or the land there at Jerusalem.
***I do not know this Willie Brown. There was,
however, a Deacon Willie Brown, who was among the first to be
buried in the new Jerusalem cemetery, which was established in
the late 1940s. Before then, families tended to have their own
family cemeteries. We have two family cemeteries: one in back of
the house where Grandma Mary lived, where Lewises and Kings are
buried; the other, in back of the house where Susanna Williams
used to live, where Williams and Jacksons are buried. Many of
the markers of these graves have disappeared and only Mama knows
fully who is buried there and where. I have, however, taken down
a list of the names and hope one day to have a marker inscribed
with these names and placed at each of these two family grave
sites. Mama used to keep up these sites on a regular bases.
Since she has been unable to do so, they have been neglected and
in some places have been overgrown or the graves have sunken and
are not identifiable. There is little profit in the dead, some
feel. But in my stories some of them may get up and walk again.
They may live again to tell their stories so the living may know
how to really live the good life.
****The group of singers from Richmond were
probably members of a church choir. |
