In this intimate portrait of one family through the lives of multiple generations of Black Mothers, we get a glimpse of the ways healing can reveal itself until it is fully known. There is a beauty to the symmetry even in the pain of its repeating nature. In the pursuit of truth, Meta Commerse has allowed her story to tell The Story.

From Introduction: I never trusted the word "normal." As a first grader I learned to read from the book about happy, golden haired children playing with a perfect red ball and a frisky brown puppy living in a sweet little house with their Mom and Dad. Were they normal? They were nothing at all like me.

Where I lived, there was always so much going on, so much that had gone on, adjustments being made, so much that would never go away because this stuff was in the air we breathed. I cannot recall a single time when I could use that word "normal" to describe us or me or the life I knew. It's true, things would get easier for a while, and then it would seem as if the worst part was over. These times were choice, wrapped in a feeling of possibility, the kind of relief that you have on an open, smooth road. As if coasting on a beautiful, sunny day in your brand-new car. But soon the weather changed, and, rather than complain about that, you learned to accept it, to accept the variable, unstable nature of this life. ...