““Love is or it ain’t”, “You are your best thing”, “Freeing yourself was one thing, claiming ownership of that freed self was another”. – Toni Morrison.

 

Photo credit: Oprah Daily

 

Named Chloe Ardelia Wofford,

Toni here, has always touched my life in such a big way.

This girl, who I fondly remember from her beautiful locks of grey hair, won the Nobel Prize for Literature back in 1993, when I was a year old!

 

Photo credit: The New York Times

 

How her nickname Toni roots from her taking on the path of Catholicism, early on her life.

Wikipedia says she became a Catholic at the age of 12 and took the baptismal name Anthony (after Anthony of Padua), which led to her nickname, “Toni”.

 

Photo credit: Department of African-American Studies Princeton University

 

When Morrison was about two years old, her family’s landlord set fire to the house in which they lived, while they were home, because her parents could not afford to pay rent.

Her family responded to what she called this “bizarre form of evil” by laughing at the landlord rather than falling into despair!

Morrison later said her family’s response demonstrated how to keep your integrity and claim your own life in the face of acts of such “monumental crudeness.”

Personally, I think this cruel event, led the world to having the amazing Toni we got to know till 2019!

 

Photo credit: Washington University in St. Louis

 

She never missed when she told us that “I know how to write forever”!

Most of her writing is about racism and living a life confronting it, as a black woman in America.

She loved writing about fiction for black audiences, which sheds good light on “Sweetness” that was retrieved in 2019!

 

President Barack Obama awards the the Presidential Medal of Freedom to author Toni Morrison during a ceremony in the East Room at the White House in Washington on May 29, 2012. The Medal of Freedom is our Nation’s highest civilian honor, presented to individuals who have made especially meritorious contributions to the security or national interests of the United States, to world peace, or to cultural or other significant public or private endeavors. UPI/Kevin Dietsch (Newscom TagID: upiphotostwo162701.jpg) [Photo via Newscom]

Did you know that Toni wrote books for children, as well?

Plays like “Desdemona” stayed on my mind ever since I first got to know about them.

 

Photo credit: We Are Teachers

 

Truth be told, I really miss you Toni.

Her words on love, race, humankind, womanity, friendship, family evoked me to think about life more widely.

I recommend you look her up, follow all her writings including those she wrote with her late son.

You won’t remain the same!

 

Photo credit: Getty Images

 

Ps. What would you have done, if it was your home that was burned down by your landlord?