WOMANISH: How She Survived
by Angelia Vernon Menchan

I am a woman and was raised by women. My mom was a single woman of thirty when I was born and immediately I was thrust and immersed into the culture of women, my single mother, widowed grandmother, married godmother, two married aunts, one widowed aunt, one divorced aunt and another single aunt. My grandmother bore ten children, six of whom were women, my mom two women children, two aunts one woman child and one man child, three aunts no children and my godmother one woman child. In their presence I learned what it meant to be a woman in all its permeations. I have also spent most of my life in the presence of myriad women who shared through words or actions their lives with me, leaving me feel honored. These stories aren’t about us, me or my people and yet they are because as women we share so many similar experiences in such different ways.