How Can I Straighten It out Again

By Shelia Breanna

A country grass meadow field with flowers blossoming.

• Language: English
• Publisher: iUniverse
• Release date: Feb 26, 2016
• ISBN: 9781491790427

Shelia Breanna

My name is Shelia Breanna, an African American woman, with a country style southern accent demeanor. Who loves the country atmosphere. Raised four children as a single parent. My goal is to be a big impact on others who have been through similar situation that I have been through and when their life is against the odds.

Book preview

How Can I

Straighten

It Out Again

SHELIA BREANNA

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HOW CAN I STRAIGHTEN IT OUT AGAIN

Copyright © 2016 Shelia Breanna.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

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Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

ISBN: 978-1-4917-9041-0 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4917-9042-7 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2016903003

iUniverse rev. date: 02/19/2016

Contents

Introduction

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

About the Author

Introduction

I remember sitting back, thinking of my past and trying to figure out where I went wrong. I’ve learned that things you go through in your life can be very complicated. Sometimes you go as far as asking the Lord, Why? Why is this happening? Why is that happening? The whole time, you’re not the only one who is having problems. There are other people in situations worse than yours. In some kind of weird way, knowing that makes you feel a lot better. Some situations are more complicated than others. But to be able to solve the problem, you must find a solution first. If you look at it, life is a lot like mathematics; you have to keep solving the problem until you can get it right. And that can sometimes become very challenging. To me, a weak mind is a very poor soul, and if you can’t get it together in this world, you become a statistic of human behavior. As for me, I’m forty years old with four children. I’m now trying to straighten up where I messed up, and that goes back to the beginning of the story of my life. Once you read my story, you can relate to where I’m coming from and where I am headed now.

Chapter 1

My life started in Dallas, Texas, on June 19, 1969. That was the year I was born. My mom was born in Dallas also. As for my dad, he was born in Louisiana. He moved to Dallas when he was in his teens. My dad had twelve siblings. Most of his siblings have passed away, and there are only two left, including my dad. My dad’s mother died while giving birth when he was only seven years old. There is not much that he can remember of her during that time. Her name was Anna Mae. From the photo I’ve seen of her, she was a very beautiful woman. Looking into her eyes in the photo, you can tell that she was very unhappy. As for my father’s dad, he was also from Louisiana. His name was Jacob, but everyone would call him by his nickname, Cowboy. Cowboy was a nice-looking man, half French and Indian. I also recall my dad saying Cowboy was very mean and a heavy drinker who loved to gamble his money away. Many days and nights, the family went without food being put on the table.

My dad said they grew up poor in Louisiana. At times, they had only sweet potatoes to eat. My dad talked about how he and his siblings had to work in the cotton fields just to help out at home. When they got paid, they would try to buy things they needed for school too. The girls would buy hair ribbons and pretty lace socks. And the boys would buy socks and shoes. A lot of the time, Cowboy would come home and take the money that they made from working. He would leave right out the door and head straight to the gambling shack. Dad said Cowboy would come home from the gambling shack, wake them from sleep, and beat them terribly. He would be so drunk that a lot of times he didn’t realize how badly he had beaten them.

My dad’s oldest sister, Lindale, had to stay up late through the night to doctor their wounds. As time passed, they were left without a mother and had to be split up to live with their aunts and uncles. Cowboy eventually moved away to Dallas and left the children in Louisiana. By then, Cowboy had met a woman they called Lovey Mae and started a new family with her. By the time Cowboy passed away, he had more than twenty children.

When Lindale was old enough, she moved to Dallas. She got a job and saved her money until she was able to send for her siblings. They moved to Dallas one at a time until everyone was there. They were so happy to be back as a family again. Everyone was working and doing well. Some had even started to work on having families of their own. Dad got a job as a construction worker and later had a son by the name of Randy. He was run over by a car and killed at the age of three.

After Randy’s passing, Dad met a lady by the name of Brenda. They dated for a while and had a beautiful daughter together. Dad couldn’t marry Brenda because of her age, and they later separated. By the late sixties, Dad had met my mom, Carla. She was a churchgoing person who grew up in the church house. She was going on seventeen when she became pregnant with me. Before I was born, Mom and Dad decided to get married. It was her parents’ idea, because they thought that it would be the right thing to do. My grandfather, PawPaw, had to cosign for Mom to be able to marry because of her age.

When Dad first met Mom, he told her that his name was Richard and he was nineteen years old. The day of the wedding, Mom found out that his real name was Charley and he was twentyfive years old. It was a shocking surprise to Mom and her parents. The wedding was held at my grandparents’ house. Even after Mom found out the truth, they continued on with the ceremony.

As for my mom, she had eight siblings, and three are now deceased. She too had a tough life growing up. There was no silver spoon in her mouth either. I sat back as a kid and listened to the stories she had to tell. My mom was a short, dark-skinned lady. She stood about five feet two and weighed 115 pounds. She held her weight pretty well. She was never a pushover and was very outspoken. Sometimes I wished that I was outspoken like her, instead of being closemouthed. I didn’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings. I was always sensitive when it came to people’s feelings, but when it came to my feelings being hurt, no