I am fifty-four years old, the age my mother was when she died.
-- Narrator (Chapter I paragraph 1)

Importance: Williams opens her memoir with the statement that she has turned the same age that her mother was when she died. She realizes not only how young her mother was when she died but also how much she has learned and changed since her mother's death.

When I opened my mother’s journals and read emptiness, it translated to longing, that same hunger and thirst Mother translated to me. I will rewrite this story, create my own story on the pages of my mother’s journals.
-- Narrator (Chapter IV paragraph 8)

Importance: The emptiness that Williams discovers in her mother’s journals makes her want to write her own story, a story of how her life had been molded and impacted by her mother.

When silence is a choice, it is an unnerving presence. When silence is imposed, it is censorship.
-- Narrator (Chapter V paragraph 6)

Importance: Williams gives...