On My Own at 107: Reflections on Life Without Bessie

By Sarah L. Delany with Amy Hill, Illus. Brian Kotzky. Harper Collins Publishing, San Francisco, 1997. [151 pp.]

Reviewed by: Meg Wickes, Hospice Volunteer.

Few of us have escaped at least a nodding acquaintance with the Delany Sisters, Sadie and Bessie, members of a prominent black family who grew up in the post-Civil War south and burst onto the literary scene at the ages of 100 and 102 with the New York Times best-seller, Having Our Say.

Sarah (Sadie), the author of this book, was the older of the two sisters. Her degrees from the Pratt Institute and Columbia University in New York City positioned her to become the first black woman to teach domestic science at the high-school level in the New York City school system. Elizabeth (Bessie), also educated at Columbia, became the second black woman to practice dentistry in New York.

When Bessie died the sisters had shared a century of living together in the same household as close companions. According to the author, "Feisty" Bessie complemented "Sweet" Sadie. Once retired from her dental practice, Bessie had channeled her considerable energies into her flower garden while Sadie ruled indoors.

Bessie's death at age 104 left Sadie totally bereft and deeply depressed. She tells of her incredible sense of loss on being left alone after a lifetime of shared living. For the first time, on her own, Sadie shares moments of her courageous struggle to make a go of things, and in the process shining a light on death and loss for everyone who chooses to share her journey.

Sadie's words to Bessie, expressed here, are full of love and courage. She says: "I sure miss you, old gal. The Lord left me here and took you. He took my little sister, more than 104 years by my side, and now you're gone . . . I have to tell you the truth. This being alone is hard. For the first time in my life I don't have you by my side. I am 107 years old now and it's like I'm just learning to walk."

It is in gradually taking over Bessie's flower garden that Sadie gradually is brought back to "life." Interspersed with the intimate "confessions" to her sister are exquisite watercolor vignettes of the flowers, in order of their blooming in Bessie's garden, each with a small accompanying sentence of remembrance. I found the combination of simple, sincere words and startlingly real garden images in this small volume moving. I invite you to travel through a season of healing with Sadie as Bessie's garden gradually becomes Sadie's - and ours.