Paper Dolls: Cut from My Own Hands

By Barbara Cash-Cooper

Barbara Cash-Cooper has written in-house plays and participated in community plays that focused on supporting youth at risk and helping to support and educate them around self-esteem issues. As a mother of a teenage girl, transitioning into a young adult, she wrote this novel hoping to connect with young men and women who need support dealing with one or more of the issues presented in this novel. Her mission is to assist in the empowerment of young men and women everywhere no matter what theyre cultural background is. Paper Dolls (Cut from my own hands) is her first book.

Ms. Cooper is a native of Oakland, California and is a single parent, raising two children; Jameisha and James Jr. She enjoys helping others by sharing her life experiences that relate to those noted in this novel to help others see that you can accomplish anything, one step at a time; when you put your mind to it and not give up. The characters in this novel deal with everyday life issues that most teens and others can relate to.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Mar 21, 2014
• ISBN: 9781493187591

Barbara Cash-Cooper

Barbara Cash-Cooper has written in-house plays and participated in community plays that focused on supporting youth at risk and helping to support and educate them around self-esteem issues. As a mother of a teenage girl, transitioning into a young adult, she wrote this novel hoping to connect with young men and women who need support dealing with one or more of the issues presented in this novel. Her mission is to assist in the empowerment of young men and women everywhere no matter what they’re cultural background is. Paper Dolls (Cut from my own hands) is her first book. Ms. Cooper is a native of Oakland, California and is a single parent, raising two children; Jameisha and James Jr. She enjoys helping others by sharing her life experiences that relate to those noted in this novel to help others see that you can accomplish anything, one step at a time; when you put your mind to it and not give up. The characters in this novel deal with everyday life issues that most teens and others can relate to.

Book preview

Contents

Dedication

Acknowledgements

Introduction

Chapter One The Union Of The Paper Dolls

Chapter Two Erica—The Will To Recover

Chapter Three Jennifer—The Secret

Chapter Four Marlene—Standing On My Own

Chapter Five Liz—The Things I Held Within

Chapter Six Simone—Domestic Violence, My View

Chapter Seven Sasha—Dreams

Chapter Eight New Beginnings

Chapter Nine Gone Too Soon /The Funeral

Chapter Ten The Meeting

Epilog

DEDICATION

This book is dedicated to my grandmother, Regurtha Campbell (my angel) and Time

The time we spent together.

The time we lost

The time we feared

The time we worried

The time we laughed

The time we cried

The time we trusted

The time we believed

The time we were victims

The time we healed

The time we found self.

also, the time God has allowed me to be a Mother and Godmother to the most beautiful children in the world, Barry Jr., Zara, Kreshawn, Keonte’ aka Spud, Jameisha, Jevon and Baby James, Jr.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

In completing this project, I would like to thank the following people that inspired me.

First, I would have to give thanks to GOD! I am very grateful for my life, which you gave me, the vision, strength, love, and the time. Without these elements this project for me would not exist.

My children; Jameisha; one of the main reasons why I wrote this book; Jevon, who motivated me to write at least one paragraph a day and gave his opinion as a young reader and Baby James, who continued to challenge me with his energy.

My niece; Etonya Titus, for sharing those minutes that she really didn’t have to give me feedback, and serve as my critic and Lajae Pegues for laying out her poetry for me to help me with my flow of writing.

All my sisters were power sources in giving me feedback; Dee Johnson, Shirley Pegues, Raynell (the artist) Watkins, and my sister Jeanette Cash who does not live near, but her input was very much needed.

My Best Friend and Sister Girl; Beverly Rankins, who gave up many nights of sleep supporting me and reading over and over each chapter that I wrote. Thanks, Bev.

Last, but not least; the Queen; My Mother. Thank you Mom for having me and thanks for all your sacrifices during this journey.

Thank You All for Making This Journey Worthwhile

INTRODUCTION

Today as I sit here thinking about my past and the journey that it took to get here, I can barely believe it. Right now my mind is just racing with so many thoughts, but good ones. My icon says, You did it! It worked! Ok, just calm down. And then I just pause and smile.

I didn’t travel this journey alone. Myself and five other beautiful sisters; yeah, we made this journey together. We set out to accomplish our goals and we definitely had to do the work that was required to get there.

It all started from grammar school; the six of us; so different, but yet the same.

By the way, my name is Erica and those other five sisters are Jennifer, Marlene, Liz, Simone and Sasha. Our relationship was like a bag of sunflower seeds; ready to be planted. Maybe dull from the outside; but yet when planted bloomed into beautiful bright colors. We were all sunflowers but we all had our own shape and size and very significant. This signifies the growing part.

Growth was one of the prime reasons why we became a united front. We wanted to see each other grow to a place of our desire in life and follow our blueprint already designed for us.

We became very close and more so like real sisters. It was amazing. We were all from different backgrounds and I mean different backgrounds.

We were different,