Strife and Life: My Perfectly Imperfect Life's Journey

By Sonia B Lee

A riveting spiritual awakening memoir by a woman who found herself by losing herself. "Strife and Life" details the journey of Apostle Sonia Lee as she grew up in rural Jamaica and found her way to the United States, where hardships became her bedfellow but faith ultimately rescued her. Her spiritual autobiography is raw and real, including acco

• Language: English
• Publisher: N&S Boutique
• Release date: Nov 8, 2021
• ISBN: 9798985028010

Book preview

Chapter 1

Childhood Dreams

Growing up as a little child in Jamaica, I dreamed of one day becoming a schoolteacher. It ultimately seemed farfetched because of my poor upbringing, but I never let go of that desire completely. I kept believing that one day it would come to pass. Perusing my education did not provide immediate money or opportunities, so I chose other avenues that I felt, at the time, would keep me going in life for a better future.

Born in the city of Clarendon, I was the second oldest of ten children for my mom and the first child for my dad. My mother’s name was Lolie. I do not know where she got her name from, but I guess my grandmother was feeling creative. I’ve never heard of anybody else named Lolie. A lot of people called her Hannah, which I’m not sure how that name was derived. Because my mother didn’t have the means to support herself and her two young kids at the time, I lived with my father, Richard Lee, and his family in May Pen for my early years. I grew up until about age 10 with my dad.

When I moved back with my mother, she was married and experiencing a lot of hard times financially. She was living in Bunkers Hill, which is in Clarendon, about two hours away in what we call the country. At that time, there was nine of us living in a one-bedroom house. The small dwelling was made of concrete block with a rusty zinc roof. We lived in the rural countryside where we could grow food, and times were very hard. No matter what we were going through, church was a must for my mother. We had to go every Sunday. I liked to go, and I would lead songs at times. I was a gifted vocalist, so I was somewhat popular in our small community, where most everyone attended church.

We had a large family, but it was wonderful. There was a lot of love and laughs. As the second oldest child, I helped my younger sibling with their daily tasks. I walked with them to school. Even when I couldn’t go to school, I made sure my siblings went even when things were economically hard and rough. I tried to push them to have a better education and not to let their current life situation discourage them, as it had me. I wanted them to do and be better, so I was always pushing them to study. There is something about me, as my mother told me from a child coming up, I have a compassionate heart. I always want to help, so helping my siblings or helping anyone would never be anything that I would resist because that’s just me.

At the same time, it was very rough financially in the family. We would have to go to the market to sell food to make sure we could keep a roof over our heads and to let the other children go to school. My focus was on helping my mother and our family survive at all costs. My dreams would have to wait.

Even when my mother was not feeling well, she still pushed herself to go out and sell fresh produce at the market. I went with her sometimes on the weekends. The conditions were so terrible at times. Sometimes we were working in the hot tropical sun. Sometimes we were in the pouring rain. We had strong faith that if we maintained a dedicated push, things would eventually work out. We always wanted and expected to see a better day, so we did a lot of things to make it. We had a little shop where we sold groceries. We grew some of the food that we were selling, including yams, banana, cabbage, carrots, and peppers. We started at like 7:30 in the morning and worked diligently throughout the day until 5:00. That was the latest we would stay during the week because the kids got home from school at 4:00. After a long day, sometimes I would cook or mom would make