Family

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A year ago today my great-grandmother Addie Lee Stewart Fields died at age 86. I'll never forget that day. It was on a cold Tuesday morning. I passed through her room that morning and I assumed she was sleeping as usual so I glanced at her and headed to school. But when I got home that night, my brother told me the sad news. We lost the sweetest, humorous and caring matriarch of our family that day.


Mrs. Fields was born in Mississippi in 1915 but she moved to New Orleans in 1935. At that time she was a single mother, but not for long. In 1942 she married Ernest Fields, whom I've never met. But I'm blessed to have known her for 20 years. Mrs. Fields was a godly woman, she was in church almost every Sunday and she sang in the choir with so much joy in her heart. She was also dedicated to her family. I remember coming to her house from school everyday and sharing countless stories with me. I recall how she sang hymns nonstop as she cooked and cleaned. She always gave me advice. On one occasion when I asked her what young girls can do to learn how to cook, she said "Get the best cookbook you can find."

She always laughed at everything. She used to two-step whenever I played a 1940s era song for her. Mrs. Fields was also a seamstress who ran a business from her home. I remember reading her Vogue pattern books whenever I was there.

We should always take time to be with our families because we never know what will happen. I'm sorry I didn't talk to her one last time or hug her that morning but a week before her death, she said, "Thank God for Jesus." Now's that blessed assurance.

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