This is the story of an extraordinary life. Born on Christmas Day in 1929 in the Black community of Weymouth Falls, Nova Scotia, Christie Lorraine Cromwell was the second-youngest of ten children. Tragedy struck early in her life when first her father and then her mother passed away. Rather than see the family broken up, Christie’s older brothers and sisters looked after the younger ones, taking jobs as they could find them and accepting what neighbours in that poor community in the thirties could spare. They were often hungry. But what shines through in this book is the incredible spirit of the members of this family. Christie's memories are full of bright and joyous colours, as she played in the fields and woods with her brother Frankie, as she experienced the independence of a job in a nearby town, as she married and raised her family in Ontario, and finally as she remarried late in life and spent her winters on the beautiful island of St. Kitts with her new husband Neville Simmonds.
With the encouragement of her grandson CJ, Christie started writing her story at the age of seventy-one. Neville is publishing it posthumously in honour of her indomitable spirit.