Quilt of Souls Author
PHYLLIS LAWSON
FUZIONZ: Tell me a little about who you are.
PHYLLIS: I was born in Detroit, but as a four- year-old child, I was sent down south to a small, rural town near the Mississippi border called Livingston, Alabama to live with grandparents I’d never met before. I spent almost nine years in Livingston, returning to Detroit as a pre-teen. During those times, I endured a lot of hardships- from physical abuse and abandonment, to being homeless on the streets at 15 years old. You will read about it in Quilt of Souls. When I turned nineteen, I left Detroit for the U.S. Air Force. This was at the tail end of the Vietnam war. I was one of the first women to work on the B-52 bombers. After this stint in the military, I took my honorable discharge and fresh GI educational benefits and pursued my degree in Sociology from the University of Maryland. I used my degree to land a job working with juvenile delinquents in a long-term juvenile facility. I also worked as a substance abuse counselor with battered women.
I entered into the Army National Guard in 2001, right before the terrorist attacks on September 11th. I was immediately deployed in support of Operation Enduring Freedom. As a result of this long deployment, I ended up remaining in the military and retiring in 2013. I am married and currently reside
"Many of the events that day remain obscured, as though a dark storm welled up and thundered out all the memories. I don't remember the exact moment when I began to miss my family, or recognize I was on my way to some unknown place, far away from them. Children weren't allowed to question grown-ups..." This is just a sample of what you will read in Quilts of Souls by Author Phyllis Lawson. The book is compelling and tells her story of when she went to live with her grandmother at the age of four and not knowing what to expect. "What she finds is inspiration...her miracle took the form of a tattered old quilt stitched together from the clothes of her grandmother's loved ones, telling the tragic stories of their lives and deaths." As you read our interview with Phyllis you will be inspired.