''Yes'm''

HISTORICAL FICTION YESm J.M. DUKE It is 1950 in rural Virginia when Samantha Lee is born into an upper middle class white family in a town divided along racial lines by both railroad tracks and philosophies. As the baby arrives home, she is welcomed into the arms of Pearl, the God-fearing, uneducated black hired help who will eventually become Sammies confidant, ally, and teacher of lifes greatest lessons. As Sammie matures through the tumultuous 1960s, Pearl makes it her personal mission to deter the girl from a predetermined life of self-importance and bigotry. After Sammies mother takes a job, Pearl becomes the mother figure in her life, nursing her through illness, teaching her Bible lessons, and sharing life stories. But as the little girl and her caretaker bond, they both struggle with the tension between their love for each other and their obligations. Nine years later, as the nation battles to achieve civil rights, Sammie and Pearl find themselves in very different places in the same small town. Yesm is a story of hope, trust, wisdom, reconciliation, and respect as a black maid and her white charge share the winds of historical change. The stories of Pearl and Sammie intertwine in a way that will leave you both nostalgic for an earlier era and grateful that the uglier parts of the past are behind us. S. E. Jacobs, attorney, Richmond, Virginia The chapters flow like vignettes as Sammie and Pearl come to life. B. L. Cloud, MEd, University of Virginia; Goodreads reviewer Yesm makes us remember the joys and pains of being part of a familywherever we may have grown up. E. T. Fife, retired educator