The Mother Who Was Once Denied

Mary Bottom-Tinsley, was born to Dock Fisher and Minerva Henderson-Fisher in the town of Jonesville, state of Louisiana. The youngest of twelve siblings. The only means of work in Jonesville were farming and domestic work, at which she worked harder than her other siblings due to the fact that she was the last one to leave home. When Mary graduated, she came to New York to live with one of her older sisters. Mary met and married her first husband, they had four children and were divorced after ten years. Twenty years later, she married her current husband, who has three children from his first marriage. Mary is the grandmother of sixteen, and great-grandmother of five. As the first lady of her church, she is a program organizer and a community activist. She loves people; she has a special passion for children. She writes poems, songs, and plays, with the hope of someday publishing them all.

This play is based on (fiction and truth) a happily married Southern couple who are God-fearing people who encountered some happy times and some crucial times in life. Tom, the husband, became a naïve and self-centered man who felt he could not deal with the tragedy that caused the facial impairment of his wife. Minnie, the mother, suffered many heartaches when she was faced with the responsibility of taking care of two children and herself alone. The father, who had imposed domestic responsibility, as well as financial problems, upon her, decided to leave with the youngest child and moved to New York. Minnie wanted to work, but no one would hire her because of her face. She learned how to be patient and wait on the Lord, with a great determination to rise above all difficulties surrounding her during these difficult times. Fifteen years later, her child returns to visit her, with friends from New York. She admitted that she was ashamed of her mother's face and denied her.