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 todd wetherington | daily herald Author Shelia P. Moses addresses the 2009 graduates of Halifax Community College at Saturday's graduation ceremony at The Centre. |
The biggest reason for the homecoming was today — Mother’s Day and her 83-year-old mom, Maless.
In talking with Moses as she drove into the Valley from Atlanta, she told the Daily Herald she would be happy to do the interview once she arrived home then added a bit of advice — “Let the phone ring several times, my mother has some gardening for me to do.”
This down-to-earth approach to life makes her books award-winning creations. The family and community ties nourished her as a child and in adulthood have given her a treasure trove of memories to draw from when writing and a foundation serving as her own approach to life.
“I have been all over the world, but it was the women here who shaped my life,” she said in the interview. “When morning comes I hear their voices, ‘Moses, you have to get up and write.’ I remember Mrs. Frances Clark telling me, ‘You can be anything and do anything you want.”
She worries too many of today’s youngsters are being brought up by television and video games. “I fear sometimes we are losing a generation to computers.”
Moses voices her concern over the loss of neighborhood culture — the disappearing village. She points to youngsters who do what they please when they please, problems with teacher-child relationships in and out of the classroom and a growing sense of violence. She stresses the need to change the trend.
“When I was growing up, there were a number of homes we could go to and feel safe … And we would never misbehave. If we did there was a price to pay,” she remembers.
Love and safety were hallmarks of her childhood.
Her grandmother’s house was the foundation of stability. “She always had food and we went there when a big storm came … It was a big house and safe … Now, my mother’s house is where you know you are safe,” Moses said.
It was her mother who urged Moses and her nine brothers and sisters to explore the world and meet its challenges head-on. “‘Reach, reach,’” Mom always told us. My mother never asked if we were going to college. She asked where … I mentioned modeling school and she said no … She urged me to go out into the world and do something,” Moses added.
Then, her voice filled with laughter, she told how her mother will remind her now and then, “I have done all I can do … Many times I went without stockings for you, now it’s up to you.”
But today with her children grown, they listen to mom, await her approval and at least twice a year — Christmas and Mother’s Day — make the journey home to celebrate mom.
The author from Rehobeth Road
She first heard some of the stories on the front porch of her grandmother’s home. Today she tells her tales through award winning books. She co-authored Dick Gregory’s memoir, “Callus on My Soul.” She was a National Book Award finalist for “The Legend of Buddy Bush,” and is currently working on a screenplay of the book. “The Return of Buddy Bush,” “The Baptism” and “I, Dred Scott: A Fictional Slave Narrative Based on the Life and Legal Precedent of Dred Scott,” have won acclaim and honors.
Her talents as a writer made Georgia Writers Association's Annual Georgia Author of the Year Award in the Young Adult Division. She also was a Coretta Scott King Author Honor recipient.
Part of the last class at W.S. Creecy High School, she thought about a modeling career, but then armed with a psychology degree from Shaw University, Moses considered the FBI and ended up in law school. She made her way to the corporate world then became a writer.
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