Forty years ago I was moved to NYC to be with my grandmother this month. For today would have been her birthday. If she was with us she would have been 112 years old. But nine months after bringing her baby girl home she went to sleep in the Lord.

Unlike most, I can’t speak on years of her love, kindness, and teaching. For I only had nine months to know her. Nine months to wonder why did she cause me come here to place my brother nor I fit in. However unlike most would choose to remember their grandmother, I remember the hell that broke loose or free after her death. Hell, that was because of jealousy, hatred, egos and power. Issues that were hidden, push under the rug, sent south to hide or banned from one’s home. Issues that has plagued generations after generations to this day.

Our community, my people don’t talk much about the past. Our communities hide away from incest and sexual abuse and rape of children, illegitimate children, abortions and criminal misconduct of generations old. Generation of old hide true birth records, criminal records, and true family trees. These hidden truths have caused future generations to unravel, breakdown, or be destroyed by the truth as they are revealed.

To stop this generation curse today we must raise our children in truth and love. We must teach them self-respect, respect of others, and discipline. Only by this can we turn the past into stepping stones giving our future generations hope.

As I approach my birthday, that I share in the month of my maternal grandmother, I seek Godly wisdom in the care and growth of my children. For no weapon of the past will overshadow their future. For the true Word of the Lord will be taught and lived before them. They will be victorious.

Hester Virginia Jefferson-Fields Finney, you may have realized your errors, or as your child had selfish motives for bringing her back home. Whichever is the case your grand and great grand+ are suffering from your actions or lack of? Your children have followed in the precepts of the youthful teachings and have caused at least two generations pain and suffering. The suffering that was not of their own doing or understanding and until they say the ‘the buck stops here’ and move forward taking the understanding we do have the true knowledge of the only Living God and rebuild our lives.

To say Rest In Peace as you watched the actions of your child that have yet to join you, sounds strange. Yet as the rich man who sought to warn his siblings of the error of their ways before they join him, you nor can her siblings can warn them of the judgment that must be faced. My prayer for your family is that they all seek after the Lord taught in the Gospel of Jesus Christ and abandon the gospel of the Finney clan that they have converted to the truth.

Your granddaughter,
1/28/17