You Look Like Mother: Aunt Anna

You Look Like Mother

Aunt Anna

Her children - and; even her niece, Aunt Mae called her "mother."  Anna Perry (Williams) Bey, a woman from the Southeastern Wiregrass states of Florida/Georgia, migrated to Newark, New Jersey in the early 1900’s. The youngest sibling out of six children, Aunt Anna was an independent woman whose motto was “To Always Have Your Own” – and strive to obtain it. She met her husband Charles Williams in Newark, and had her first child Harry at the age of thirteen.

Bey’s Hand Laundry at 80 Morton Street in Newark, New Jersey, was both the home and business of Aunt Anna and her husband Uncle Charles. They lived on the third floor during the 1940 – 1950’s while operating their “OWN” hand laundry. The motto paid off – they were business owners.

Aunt Anna didn’t live far from my family; actually, she lived right behind us. I would go to her house all the time; she lived on the lobby floor of the Stella Wright Projects. During those days you could walk almost anywhere you wanted without anyone bothering you. She would come to the house all the time. I remember seeing her walking toward the house; I would run to meet her. She would sit with mom and my Aunt Mae at the kitchen table, and they would just talk for hours or so it seemed – it was our normal family visits. We were all so very close to one another.

Aunt Anna’s family was of the Moorish American Faith. At an early age, they were devout followers of the Moorish Americans: practice, way of life, and raising their children. I remember times when they would have their "fish fry’s" at the Temple where they worshipped. She worked for the Hall of Records for many years until she passed away. I remember going to visit her at St. James Hospital; unfortunately, on that day she had passed away.

Growing up as a child and throughout the years, my cousins (Aunt Anna’s daughters’) and even Aunt Mae would always say, “you look just like Mother.”  On a visit with my cousin last summer, there was a picture on the mantle of people standing outside a house. They were dressed in Moorish American fashion. My cousin Euniece pointed her mother out to me. When I got back home, I had washed my hair and wrapped it in a towel. Just so happens I saw “Mother” in the mirror. I said to myself: Wow, I do look just like their mother. What a strong resemblance of the Anna as a young girl, and me today.

As they say, there is someone else that looks or has a strong resemblance of you. I guess this trait is in the “Genes” and was surely passed down from the ancestors.

~Peace~