Chapter One

Joanne Rowling was born July 3, 1919, in Honea Path, South Carolina, to Frank and Mary Sue Rowling. She had 20 siblings, eleven brothers, and nine sisters. She

received her formal education from the Anderson County, South Carolina, school system.

Her father, Frank Rowling, was the minister at St. James Methodist Church, where she participated in the choir and was engaged in public speaking. Joanne Rowling

was raised in a strict Methodist home. Her father was a preacher who ruled with a religious iron fist. The gospel he preached was joyless and uncompromising, and he

preached it with thunder, lighting, and hellfire rising most every time. The Rowling family could not listen to contemporary music, and the girls could not wear pants.

In pursuit of painting and sculpture at 17, Joanne relocated to New York City and lived in Harlem to study arts. With time, she found herself to be pregnant. She was not married, and she was not sure who the baby’s father might be. When she realized she was pregnant, she spent weeks thinking, wondering, and agonizing about what she

should do. In the end, she realized that she wanted to be a parent even if she did not know who the father was. Joanne did the best she could. Once she was out of work, she needed help paying her rent, so she decided to visit her parents in

South Carolina.

Joanne returned home on a Sunday afternoon, and she sat down at the kitchen table and tearfully asked her mother to sit down. There is no easy way to tell you this, but I am pregnant. Her father was not at

home he had not returned from church. Upon hearing this news, he was furious and also profoundly wounded. He found stepping into the pulpit each Sunday even more emotionally demanding and felt he had lost his credibility.

Joanne’s father was totally disappointed with her and denounced her for bringing shame and disrepute to his name. He announced her pregnancy to his church

and would treat his daughter as sinful as any other church member for the shame she had brought to him and the church. She was humiliated in church by her father who deeply condemned her for getting pregnant.

He dropped her from the choir, and she was directed to withdraw from all church activities.

Her father immediately put her out of his house and sent her to live with her brother Lawrence in New York. She had sinned, shamefully fallen short of God’s

glory, and let her father’s expectations down.

Both parents were angry about her choices and angry about being thrown into a situation so out of control. After returning to New York to live with her brother Lawrence,

she did her best to take care of her pregnant self until she gave birth. When I was born I never knew who my father was or anything about him. Unfortunately, during her

pregnancy, she went totally blind, and a few months later, she decided to return home with her baby son Christoper; Standing on the front stoop she knocked on the door hoping to find forgiveness and shelter under

her father’s roof. Mary, her mother, answered the door and went in and told her husband, that his daughter had come home. He did not speak, just turned his chair away

from his wife and his back to the front door where Joanne stood weeping, cradling her baby son. There were tears that day, but the tears did not cleanse the wounds or soften the father's heart. In fact, he remained to the end of his days as stern and severe as he ever had been, refusing to welcome his daughter home. Declaring her illegitimate child was no grandchild of his. Therefore, he

did not want to see her or the baby, and she was an unfit mother and should not be allowed to raise the child.

The next morning, I was sent to live with my Aunt Evelyn in North Carolina. She was eight years older than my, mom but she acted like the younger sister. I was not allowed to attend church or play with any of my relative siblings because I was considered an embarrassment to the Rowling family name. Some of my fondest memories of Aunt Evelyn were her great cook. She loved beautiful things beach glass crystals and kaleidoscopes. She would tell me stories about her life and I would listen to every one of them. She encouraged me to read anything that I could get my hands on and said never stop learning, be respectful to people, pray every day, and try to go as far

as you can. Never take a NO for an answer. She went out of her way to obtain books for me to read.

At a very young age, I became fascinated with astronomy and wanted to be an astronomer scientist.

After breakfast every Sunday morning she would read to me Bible stories until around 11:00 am. Since I could not play with any children I would play in the backyard with an

inflatable doll. I really enjoyed blowing up the doll and then letting the air out. Watching the doll deflate was exciting, and a sense of mystery because it made the worst sound

I had never heard. One Sunday morning while I was playing with my doll the next-door neighbor roster decided to come

into my kingdom and I was not going to allow that. So, began the fighting ritual battle at 11:30 am every Sunday morning between me and the roster this was a challenge I had to conquer to protect my kingdom.

Aunt Evelyn got really sick when I was around five and a half years old. My relative tried everything but nothing worked. On a beautiful Sunday morning after breakfast, Aunt Evelyn prayed to the Lord for all of his

blessings and told me she was not feeling well so she was going to lie down for a while. I then went outside to play in the backyard; about a half hour later my aunt called me back into the house and asked me to sit down in the chair. She said she was going to leave me now and it was time for me to grow up at that very moment at 63 she passed away, and my whole world got turned upside

down.

I watched her soul in the form of a dove leave her body and the words she spoke to me just before she died, I realized I was personally connected with God and was experiencing his presence. This intersection with God

has been a major anchor in my life when I am at any low point, such as facing tragedy or storms of any kind. I can find hope and courage to go on because I know God will help me through tough times. Later on, I

found out my aunt died of ovarian cancer which she had been fighting for many years.