Quilt Of Souls
"Many of the events that day remain obscured, as though a dark storm welled up and thundered out all the memories. I don't remember the exact moment when I began to miss my family, or recognize I was on my way to some unknown place, far away from them. Children weren't allowed to question grown-ups..." This is just a sample of what you will read in Quilts of Souls by Author Phyllis Lawson. The book is compelling and tells her story of when she went to live with her grandmother at the age of four and not knowing what to expect. "What she finds is inspiration...her miracle took the form of a tattered old quilt stitched together from the clothes of her grandmother's loved ones, telling the tragic stories of their lives and deaths." This is just a short excerpt from Quilt of Souls by Phyllis Lawson. My interview with the author was very inspiring.
Lawson was born in Detroit, MI. At the age of four, she was sent down south to a small, rural town near the Mississippi border called Livingston, Alabama to live with her grandparents, whom she had never met before. She spent almost nine years in Livingston and returned to Detroit during her pre-teen years. During those times, she would endure a lot of hardships- from physical abuse and abandonment, to being homeless on the streets at 15 years old, which you can read about it in Quilt of Souls. When Lawson turned nineteen, she left Detroit and joined the U.S. Air Force at the tail end of the Vietnam War. She was one of the first women to work on the B-52 bombers. After this stint in the military, she took an honorable discharge and fresh GI educational benefits and pursued her degree in Sociology from the University of Maryland; henceforth, landing a job working with juvenile delinquents in a long-term juvenile facility. Lawson also worked as a substance abuse counselor with battered women.
Lawson says she initially began writing poetry as a young girl. “It was my catharsis so to speak because it provided an outlet for me to capture and release the emotional pain that I experienced during that time. When I entered the military, I began pursuing other avenues of self-discovery and didn’t write again until twenty-five years later. I think that I was blessed with a gift to write. Over the years I have noticed that my writing has taken on a new and very different flavor. My poetry turned into progressive writing. I’ve always wanted to write about things that reflected my life and the lives of others. I wrote poetry as a way of addressing this aspect while soothing the struggles that I had to endure during my teenage years. My love of writing poetry eventually turned into a love for story writing. I wanted to pay homage to my grandmother for instilling within me a firm foundation that would remain with me for the rest of my life. I also wanted to show how she and other women of her era sustained themselves and their families against all odds,” explained Lawson.
The author’s newest book, Quilt of Souls, is her memoir, which is centered on her being sent to Alabama in 1957 to be raised by her grandmother. “My heart was broken by being discarded in this way by my mother and I was not prepared for the shockingly rural farm I found, with no electricity, running water, or indoor plumbing. This environment terrorized me. Then, like a miracle, I found an old tattered old quilt that brought comfort to me. It was a family heirloom. And just as miraculous, are the stories that come to belong to the quilt, when my grandmother sets out to repair it. Each piece of cloth has a story; a story from its original wearer. These cloths bring the souls of their owner into the quilt, according to Grandma, making it a “Quilt of Souls” that protects the owner. Through the teachings of my wise and loving grandmother, I began to adjust to the rhythms of the country and my broken heart began to heal. Later on, as a pre-teen, I was thrown into a nightmare of abuse when taken back to Detroit by my mother. Thus begins an odyssey of my downward-spiral. I ended up running away from home and living on the streets, I basically fell into a deep sense of self despair. Through it all, the voice of my grandmother and the reminder that I carry the heritage of my family’s historical past would come to me in the middle of my darkness. Remembering the struggles of those people whose tragic lives were embedded in this quilt, kept me alive. As a result, I began the struggle to climb out of the depths and go on to achieving success and re-building my self-esteem,” cited Lawson.
Lawson entered into the Army National Guard in 2001, right before the terrorist attacks on September 11th and was immediately deployed in support of Operation Enduring Freedom. As a result of this long deployment, she ended up remaining in the military and retiring in 2013. Lawson is currently married and resides in Florida with her husband Larry. They have two sons and five beautiful granddaughters, who Lawson says are her absolute joy.
Purchase your copy of “Quilt of Souls” on www.amazon.com.
“I have my copy of the book and the story is beyond amazing and one of the greatest stories told.” ~Shenoba Kinsey
