From Falling to Flying

To be able to understand and eventually forgive my mother for trying to kill me when I was an infant, and for the violence I suffered at her hand as a child, I had to understand the source of her fury.

The history of abuse of women in the Augustus family began before Gussie was born. Gussie's mother, Della, was raised as a slave to her family, without a voice, forced to tend to her many younger siblings' needs. Della continued to be abused by those around her until her husband rescued her fr...