*Laura was the youngest child of Aunt Sally, Mama’s sister, . She was born in the mid-1930s. She had a lot of sadness in her life. Laura did her best to take care of Aunt Sally, who eventually had to be placed in a nursing home, a place Mama fear mightily for herself. But her daughter Annie has stood by her.

**A "place closer" is a reference to my move from New Orleans to Baton Rouge to attend Louisiana State University (LSU). I moved Yusef’s furniture with me. I tried to hold onto it. But in the end, when I decided to leave Louisiana, I was forced to sell it for a pittance. He gave me a call in Virginia and wanted to know where his furniture was. I told him the truth. He was disappointed I had to do what I did. I haven’t talked to him since. It hurt me that I disappointed and hurt him. But I was in a desperate situation. I loved the brother and I regretted much that our friendship had to come to an end. But, I suppose, we each had to go our own way. I have kept up with Yusef’s success. I have not wished him any ill. I am still in his debt. Maybe the Lord will make it so that I can repay him for what I owe him, a debt that goes beyond the furniture. He taught me something about poetry and he turned me onto the poetics of Marcus Christian. 

The work on Christian has brought me some scholarly attention and I hope has done me and Christian some justice. I believe I have done a good and necessary thing trying to get Christian the scholarly attention he deserves. I have put money out and I haven’t made a dime on it. But it is a loss that I haven’t shed any tears about. The last I heard, Yusef was at Princeton and, so I am told, he is charging two thousand dollars for speaking engagements. So he is not hurting for the loss suffered at my hands, at my smallness.