by the numbers:

• the scope of this memoir is 51 years. 

• my mother died of natural causes at 25.

• I was 4.7 when she passed away.

• my brother was 22 months.

• my father was 27.

• they married November 26, 1963 3 days after president Kennedy was assassinated. they wanted to cancel the wedding. 

• my parents were married for 7 years.

• my father was 14 & my mother was 12 WHEN THEY MET.