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Chet Jackson

Pittsburgh, Pa, United States

I dedicate this space to the memories of Dessie Lee Mitchell and Geneva Jackson without whom I simply could not exist. Five days after my birth I left a hospital in the arms of a stranger as my mother took me home. Infants need parents to survive in the world. Parents need children by definition. Upon arrival in my mother's house things stopped making sense and I would awaken three decades later a grown man as confused as ever. Adoption in my case is more a state of mind than legal proclamation. No court sanctioned my mother's decision to parent me or my birth mother's choice not to. Yet here I am the son of two mothers Coming Home to Self.

(Thank you to author Nancy Newton-Verrier for your groundbreaking works The Primal Wound and Coming Home to Self)