Nancy B. Brewer

“Like a sparrow in its flitting, like a swallow in its flying, a curse that is causeless does not alight.”

“Humans will never be in charge of this world, as long as dust and weeds do as they please.”

“Yet, the quest for knowledge will overcome us and we must know. And, at last, we must see where the road ends, even if it be the cliff.”

“Our passion for fear consumes us and gives birth to the imaginary. Once fear is unleashed, it feeds upon us and rips us apart like a wild animal. Its hold is great, narrow is the escape and treacherous the road. I know of what I speak, for I was once his victim.”

“For in the forest someone is always watching and someone is always listening!”

“Today’s breakfast consist of rice and a piece of bread fried in a bit of salt pork grease. At least I have my memories of grand banquets and fine foods, but this is all the children have ever known. I suppose it is best not to have anything to compare.”

“My first order of business was to look in the side pocket where I had hidden my garnet and gold necklace.”

“I am a survivor. But I am not unique of the people that survived the great late war. We all have our stories to tell. But for most of us the hardened corners have soften with the passage of time.”

“I don't know where we are, but we'll soon find our way home!" Le avventure di Pinocchio”

“I could faintly smell the ocean. I imagined being one of the old oak trees standing there swaying in the wind and braving all sorts of weather. I pondered what they had seen in the past and what they might see in the future”

“Rebel Number Four" is waiting patiently by the door. I named him "Rebel Number Four," for he is the fourth of his kind I have given the name "Rebel." To many he may be just a hound dog, but to me he is a champion and a friend to the end.”

“I stop to brace myself against the walls, which are painted with the fingerprints of family.”

“As my body recalled my soul, I began to quiver with pain and gasp for air.”

“The heavy smell of incense gave me an uneasy feeling as if I had walked into a tomb”

“The wind blowing through the cracks in the walls was fitting for this isolated and lonely place.”

“For with all that is grand, grander is the expansion of the mind.”

“Humans are curious creatures. What we cannot see, our logical minds will try to deny.”

“Directly in front of me, crossing the street, I saw a woman laughing and walking arm in arm with two men. When she came to the curb, she lifted her skirt with both hands and vulgarly displayed a pair of indigo stockings.”

“On this night of the Harvest Moon. They tossed bones into the “Bone Fire” and asked the yellow moon to shine its protection over them. (Today we call it a "Bonfire")”

“He was wearing a little bag of “Mojo” around his neck.”

“She turned her painted blue eyes toward the assistant and said something in French before she left.”

“The curtains were not yet drawn and with the moonlight spreading across the room, I could see clearly. I undressed and slipped a soft cotton gown over my naked body. I pulled the blanket off the foot of my bed, covered my shoulders and wa...lked out on the balcony. The cool night air blowing through my hair served as a reminder that only a hint of summer remained in this year of 1860.”

“Daddy-by Nancy B. BrewerWhen I used to say, speak up you are as good as they, You would just smile and say, let them have their way. When in my foolish youth, I so often disobeyed,He would just smile and say, let her have her way. When summer passed and winter overcame. He was not afraid, never once did he say. When in the moonlight his final hour came, He just smiled and said Lord I'll go your way.”

“Papa was our strength and the very fiber that wove our family together. He was our foundation and our rock, but even rocks, break, given enough stress.”

“The pages that follow will be our journey of the life we built together here in Concord, North Carolina. These pages will reveal fragments from the past and events that occurred along the way.”

“Perhaps you have visited my grave and flowers left, but did you hear me cry out to you!”

“Listen, my child, to the voices of your ancestors. Take pride in our accomplishments; find your strength in our suffering. For WE are not just voices in the wind, WE are a living part of YOU”

“It was a warm and natural feeling to be there. We were not black or white people. We were just people bound together by love and understanding. As I walked out of that church, I felt like I had rediscovered my inner peace.”

“He is dressed in a long, white robe and in his hand is a white cap. I draw up as he passes down the hall; he does not see me. Shortly I hear a horse leaving. There is much I do not know about him, but tonight I know one of his secrets. He is a midnight rider.”

“Children worked in the mills: "I will always believe that children are designed for green meadows and play, not for factories and cotton dust.”

“It was not an unusual site to see Negro tenant farmers crossing the intersection of Spring and Barbrick on the way to the cotton warehouse”

“According to Robert, his friend Moses was a soldier in the first war, as he described it. He fought Indians and soldiers in red coats.”

“Are you a traveling man he asked?”

“I can hear my steps echo as I follow him to the end of the hall. The door to the small closet under the steps is standing ajar. He closes the door and latches it.”

“The Baptist Church rejects man with wooden leg: It appears the Baptist preacher refused to baptize a veteran of the late war in the holy water- saying they only baptize flesh and blood, not wood.”

“Before I disappear behind the door, I stop and turn around to look at him.”

“The sun had just slipped behind the trees and evening cast its dark, smoky shadow.”

“I am strong as steel and my roots are planted deep in this southern soil. Time may have weathered me, but I will always bend with the wind”

“Ain’t nothing too serious. Even death is a joke on the old devil, if we are living for the Lord.”

“I consider all things a work of fiction, even myself.”

“The seamstressWith fingers weary and worn,And eyelids heavy and red, Long after the house sleeps, Still in her chair she sits.Her needle flickering, in-out,Daylight nears and the fire burns low,Alone with her shirt, still she sews.She, held prisoner by her thread,Her heads nods, but sleep forbids,Just one more seam or button two.Listen brothers, sons and husbands all, Call it not just cotton, linen or only wool, Count each stitch and say a prayer, For heart and soul that put them there.”

“As I held the family Bible in my hand and I could almost feel the joys and sorrows that connected me to the past.”

“Curiosity can be as dangerous as a butterfly hovering over a flame.”

“I recall the words, the faces, the stale perfume and the pungent odor that filled the room..”

“The real Sallie has returned and her portrayal of Mother has disappeared”

“God only knows what the doctor gave her. However,the medication has run out and she now must face the reality on her on accord.”

“Her voice is as soft as a bubbling brook and there is an undeniable holiness surrounding her.”

“I wonder if it is possible to escape the clinches of despair; or would despair become the hunter and reclaim me as its prisoner.”

“Just yesterday I stood at the window and watched him run across the field like a young deer. He is thin and agile. I think he will be forever young. He cannot be enticed by money or worldly goods; he desires nothing.”

“Desperate and lonely, I was determined to find solace in the arms of another”