The Significance of Curly Hair

<p><strong>2025 IPPY Book Awards - Silver Medal</strong></p><p></p><p>Growing up Gram was my best friend. We shared a double bed in my family's cottage until I was nine. Fifteen years later I got the call that she'd fallen and hit her head. All I could see was her mouthing Don't you love me enough to come back home? I wept on the plane as I began to write her story the one she'd asked me to write in ninth grade.</p><p></p><p>Gram and I were polar opposites. She spent much of her life barefoot and pregnant. I was a gay career-driven independent decision-maker.</p><p></p><p>Searching through old relics we found a time capsule in Gram's drawer revealing clues to her dark era her 1957 breakdown. Dark green pills a bank book scribbles on an envelope: answers to unasked questions. She survived stress and abuse without things I take for granted: income a car stocked pantry shelves. She did it all with unconditional love never revealing her pain.</p><p></p><p>I'd spent my adult life avoiding becoming a traditional woman but her death freed something in me. I realized the importance of child-rearing understanding a woman like me can balance career and family. Love and support create happy healthy kids. I could pass Gram's spirit onto a child braiding generations together from lifetime to lifetime.</p><p></p><p> ---</p><p></p><p>I read or rather zoomed through the whole thing. The emotional action just sort of sweeps you along. I had tears in my eyes at the end of Chapter 1. - Mimi Schroeder APR Max Communications</p>