Looking Through Her Eyes

By Lillie White

This book is about my struggles in life and how I placed everything in God's hands and he carried me through. I surrender it over to Jesus, and he got me through. These are true events that happened to me.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Fulton Books, Inc.
• Release date: May 3, 2024
• ISBN: 9798889824930

Book preview

Table of Contents

Title

Copyright

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Chapter 22

About the Author

cover.jpg

Looking Through Her Eyes

Lillie White

Copyright © 2024 Lillie White

All rights reserved

First Edition

Fulton Books

Meadville, PA

Published by Fulton Books 2024

ISBN 979-8-88982-492-3 (paperback)

ISBN 979-8-88982-493-0 (digital)

Printed in the United States of America

My name is Lillie White. I am a sixty-nine-year-old African American woman and a mother of four (one is deceased), five stepchildren, and three adopted children. My life was hard and painful. I was an outcast in my family and friends. I have accomplished things in my life. At a very early age, I had to help with the housing expenses. The City of Cleveland started a stay-in school program. I was working at the age of thirteen as a cleaner in a school building. I have also been a teller, manager of a restaurant, nurse aide, school bus transportation driver, cosmetologist, and licensed foster mother.

I have always been there for others. I have helped a lot of people. Some of them took my kindness for weakness. I have been married and divorced twice. In my time, I have owned three homes and fifteen cars. God has truly blessed me. I love writing poems and music, and my first book is Looking Through Her Eyes. I have always loved the Lord Jesus; I accepted Christ at an early age and was baptized at the age of twelve. I love cooking, designing, landscaping, tailoring, drawing, and building small projects. God has never left me alone. He has always given me what I needed. I hope you enjoy reading Looking Through Her Eyes. Thank you.

Chapter 1

The fall of 1959, on my first day of kindergarten, I was on my way to Hough Elementary School. My Uncle Alex was going to take me to school because my mother was sick with the flu. I told my Uncle Alex I did not want breakfast because milk made me sick. So off to school we went. When I was with my Uncle Alex, he made me feel like a princess. That day, I was wearing a red satin dress with black patent leather shoes. My uncle said I was the prettiest girl in town while holding my hand, and we walked toward my school. With a song in heart, My Country, 'Tis of Thee, off we went. The day went by very fast. Uncle Alex was there to pick me up to take me home.

Time was going by so fast. I was now eight years old. The time had come for my uncle not to walk me to school. Mom was in the kitchen making breakfast of cereals and milk. I asked her if I could only eat the cereal, but she said, No, eat it all. I tried to tell her the milk made my stomach hurt, but she didn't care. So off to school I went. The police officer was patrolling the streets. The horses were so nasty; they would poop in the streets.

School was good. We had some nasty teachers. One was named Mrs. Donavan. She did not like Black people. She would always pick on us, hitting us with rulers, and say we would never amount to anything. Time was going by fast, and the bell rang. I was ready to go. My stomach was hurting bad. I could tell something was going on with my stomach. It had a lot of gas. I started walking toward home. My stomach felt like it was going to burst. Something said run. It felt like my stomach was about to erupt. I started praying and running as fast as I could, but it was too late.

Just when I thought I was going to make it, I passed gas, and loose stool ran down my legs. It started coming down my legs, and I was still running, trying to get home. I finally made it home, but I had to go to the seventh floor. I went through the back stairway so no one could see me. At this time, my heart was pounding out of my chest because I knew I had a whipping coming. By this time, my shoes' socks were covered. I was getting ready to enter the door when my mother said, What in the hell is that horrible smell?

The first thing that came out of my mouth was, I was running home and stepped in horse doo-doo.

Mom said, Go clean yourself up.

I really didn't know where to start. I figured if I hid the underpants, she would never know, so I put them behind the washing machine. But she found them and asked, If you stepped in doo-doo, how did it get inside your underwear?

I was at a loss for words. That was the worst butt whipping I had ever got.

Chapter 2

The year 1963 was a sad one. We lost our president John F. Kennedy. Entire families and friends cried a lot. Mom told us to go outside and play. We always got into trouble running relay, climbing trees, and kicking ball; you name it, we did it. This one day, we were running relay around the Cleveland building when my brother looked up on the seventh floor and saw three small children about to fall through a broken banister. My brother Will started running up the stairs, trying to save the children We were yelling, telling them to go back. The two older kids went back, but the baby fell through the broken banister. My brother had just reached the fifth floor when he heard us screaming. My mother called the police, and an ambulance was dispatched. Her body was smashed all over the place. Later they told us that the mother was at the Laundromat. The baby was pronounced dead at the hospital. The mom said she thought she had closed the door all the way.

As kids, we were always getting into trouble trying to find out where Mom hid all the good snacks. One day, we saw her put them on the top shelf. We waited until she took her nap, and we made a human ladder. Will was at the bottom. I was on his shoulder. Lisa was on my shoulder. We made it. As soon as she grabbed the jar, she started to lean over. I was unable to hold her, and down we went. My mother came in the kitchen and said, Get ready for your ass whipping. This was when we saw Lisa's eyes roll back in her head. We thought she was possessed. They took her to Mount Sinai Hospital, where they said she had an epilepsy seizure. This took all the fun out of our adventures because Lisa had to be watched all the time. When she came back from the hospital, we didn't know what to call her. All we could remember was her eyes rolling to the top of her head. And we saw that in scary movies.

Years were going by very quickly. This was the last normal fall day that I could remember. A White restaurant owner would deny a Black man a glass of water. This was how it began—the Hough riots. We were living in hell. Stores were vandalized. People in the neighborhood were starting fires. People were getting shot and killed. This was when the Black nationalists were formed to restore order. There were a lot of White owners closing their stores and moving off Hough. This was when they gave us a curfew. We had to be off the streets by 6:00 p.m. If we were found on the street, they would take us to