Growing up in Chicago

I was an unhappy child growing up. Always wanting more time and attention than my single mom could spare to give me. I was one out of four kids and she hardly had time to sleep much less devote to my childlike whims. My birthdays were always lack luster because for some reason money was always slow in the summer time. My mother, like me, was an entrepreneur. I can remember only a few happy birthdays. One where we spent the night at the Embassy Suites and another where a friend of hers with a boat took us out on Lake Michigan on a warm summer afternoon. I also remember birthday cards with food stamps and I.O.U’s.

I became pregnant at 20 and I brought my son into the world shortly after my 21st birthday. My mother passed away less than a year later. My father was never involved in…