My paternal grandparents emigrated from Poland to New York State. They came separately and met somehow in Queens. They married and raised two children, Walter, my father and Helen. I never knew my maternal grandmother. I was four when my grandfather, Frank died. I remember my father explaining death to me, in his office, in our first house in Jamaica NY.
My mother was born in Louisiana, as was her mother, Mamie Louise Storm, my Nana, my favorite person ever. Nana was the child of slave owners in Trenton Louisiana, now West Monroe. Mamie was orphaned at three and sent with her sister Lyda to live in the big house in town with their Uncle Hiram. Lyda and Mamie were raised by a former slave lovingly called Old Aunt Nellie. My Nana had only a third grade education and still, she was the wisest person I never knew. She married young and had a daughter, Rosemary. Mamie divorced her husband, Julian Ray because he drank, womanized and spent her inheritance.
Nana gave up men and alcohol at an early age. She took Rosemary to Los Angeles; went to beauty school; got her license; moved to Hollywood and a got great job. Eventually she moved to Jamaica NY and opened her own beauty shop: The Rose Ray Beauty Salon.
Rosemary grew up in California and New York, went to beauty school, met and married Walter and I was born. Then the world went to war, WWII, and nothing was ever the same.
Peace returned and nothing was ever the same. Rosemary and Walter were no longer good together. They stuck it out for four children and thirty years, then divorced.
Nana’s beauty shop was my haven. My mother worked there. I grew up there in the company of women who knew and enjoyed me.
I went to high school in Manhattan then took the subway to Nana's shop almost every day after school. My future was wide open and I believed as Nana used to tell me: “You can do anything you want to do, if you just put your mind to it.”
— Julian
My mother was born in Louisiana, as was her mother, Mamie Louise Storm, my Nana, my favorite person ever. Nana was the child of slave owners in Trenton Louisiana, now West Monroe. Mamie was orphaned at three and sent with her sister Lyda to live in the big house in town with their Uncle Hiram. Lyda and Mamie were raised by a former slave lovingly called Old Aunt Nellie. My Nana had only a third grade education and still, she was the wisest person I never knew. She married young and had a daughter, Rosemary. Mamie divorced her husband, Julian Ray because he drank, womanized and spent her inheritance.
Nana gave up men and alcohol at an early age. She took Rosemary to Los Angeles; went to beauty school; got her license; moved to Hollywood and a got great job. Eventually she moved to Jamaica NY and opened her own beauty shop: The Rose Ray Beauty Salon.
Rosemary grew up in California and New York, went to beauty school, met and married Walter and I was born. Then the world went to war, WWII, and nothing was ever the same.
Peace returned and nothing was ever the same. Rosemary and Walter were no longer good together. They stuck it out for four children and thirty years, then divorced.
Nana’s beauty shop was my haven. My mother worked there. I grew up there in the company of women who knew and enjoyed me.
I went to high school in Manhattan then took the subway to Nana's shop almost every day after school. My future was wide open and I believed as Nana used to tell me: “You can do anything you want to do, if you just put your mind to it.”
— Julian
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