Irena 
A Portrait of Elyse [EPUB ebook] 
Through the Eyes of Her Grandaughter

From the pen of her Granddaughter is based on my paternal grandmother Elsie Bolden. Writing has been a part of my coping with life mechanism for a very long time. In processing what I would write about in my first book I decided my grandmother Elsie deserved to be written about. Not because of who or how she was, but how I saw her. I didn’t have the facts of her life to make it a true biography; therefore, I have fictionalized much of it to try and portray the life of a black woman. Sometimes we look at older people and see them as they appear before us. We often forget our experiences could very well be the same as theirs were, and we really can learn a lot from them. Unless they made great accomplishments in their lives we tend to dismiss their experiences as trivial.
In writing this book based on my grandmother’s life, I have found a love and acceptance of her I never had while she was alive.