The Day I Saw The Hummingbird - Presented by Paulette Mahurin

As the coolness started to disappear from the morning air, we knew it was time to get ready for work. I felt for Mama; she had had no sleep for two nights. When she lit a candle and began making breakfast, I could see her wrinkled face and bloodshot eyes. Everything about her was tired-looking. She appeared much older than her young thirty years. Oh, how I wished she could stay back in the cabin and rest. But no, she had no time for that. No time for anything other than grabbing a quick meal, feeding me, changing out of her putrid dress, and dragging her exhausted body to work. 

It was an especially warm mid-May day. The hummingbirds had already arrived earlier that year. They usually welcomed in a new year, migrating to Louisiana around the end of January. Mama and I were working near the edge of the sugarcane crop close to some flowers when I saw a tiny bird dipping its long, slender bill into an orange bell-shaped flower. It was a rare treat when I spotted a hummingbird with its vibrant colors. Something about those birds made me feel more alive. I once tried to count the times one flapped its wings. I couldn’t do it; it’s near impossible to see the space between the movements. And oh, how that little beauty invigorated me. I thought the day had started off on a good foot, seeing that beautiful creature covered in the brightest turquoise blue I ever did see. The pretty little thing had splashes of orange on it, too—just like the color of the flower it fed on. I could surely fly off and spend the rest of my life living among such grand appeal. Mama was right when she would say, “It God’s work in nature. You wanna find peace, my boy, God done filled the whole world with it. Just gotta look past all the folk who fuss and fume. God’s creations, they is simple and fine.” She’d smile and shake her head in amazement. “Proves to me,” she’d sing, “there surely be a Lord creating all this.”

But what went wrong when that same Lord who created such magnificence also created men with bitter hatred in their hearts? I never got my answer to that question. And if ever there was a time I needed one, it would be the day I saw the hummingbird...

The Day I Saw

  The Hummingbird

By Paulette Mahurin

Slavery is the next thing to hell.  
--Harriet Tubman

He had been born into slavery and as soon as he was old enough would also be called upon to work the fields, cutting the cane or carrying...his Mama would be teaching him how to do it, for she had carried him, screamed in her birthing and then took him into the fields as she was forced to go back to work... There was no other option. They were bought and paid for, becoming the property of the plantation owner.

But the one they all hated most was the overseer, who carried a whip or used anything else to hurt them, including coming into their shanties late at night...He had been there the night he came to Mama. She had scooted him out to go sleep with his friend... Even then he was old enough to know what happened to the women when he came...With his father gone, there was no way to protect his Mama... 

And the hate and anger within him grew deeper and deeper, cutting his heart and soul until he could not contain his outbursts...

I couldn’t shake the distrust that lived in my body. 

All the kindness and compassion I’d experienced

from those who helped to free me

never replaced the sour taste left from the torture

and injustice at the hands of the mean foreman

that defined my childhood. 

Lower your head Oscar, I could still hear my Mama

scream. Don’t be looking where your eyes don’t belong.

Later at night when away from the sugarcane field,

my mama, Catherine Mercer,

her big brown eyes wide as the moon and

her nostrils flaring, would whisper in my ear. 

Your curiosity is gonna get us killed.

~~~

Sometimes they had half-days off on Sunday. Oscar and his friend would spend time at the creek throwing rocks to count the times it would jump...Simple fun that took them away from all that was wrong with their world...

Oscar is the main character of Paulette Mahurin's latest novel. I met her with her debut book, The Persecution of Mildred Dunlap  and The Seven Year Dress. Mahurin has a real gift in creating books that are historically significant, but, even more importantly, readers become so involved in her books that we begin to feel as if we were right there within the book, maybe even as one of the characters....

While the story is built around Harriet Tubman's work with The Underground Railroad, she personally is only mentioned in this book as the person who started it...

Oscar was not even ten when, on his mother's death bed, she indicated that it was now time for him to go for freedom. There had been a small group who talked about and planned for an escape, but, in the end, it was only Oscar and his best friend, Sammy who, at the age of 10, sat with Oscar while she went back to work... She had no choice now, they had already killed her husband and she had to ensure her boy was safe...

Now, Sammy and Oscar had to leave on their own, never to see anybody again who was left behind. They had learned the routes to follow and had been given a small map but neither had ever been anywhere outside of the plantation... Fear alone walked with them...

Oscar was an intelligent young boy and had some basic learning of the alphabet and reading, even though it was forbidden for them to learn how to read. His mother had taught him much about God and life, about nature's beauty and how to survive. 
But two other women he met along the way continued to teach Oscar... It is in the sacrifices of those who provided support to those who escaped that we learn not only more about Oscar, but also about how those who provided shelter felt as if they were compelled to help!

Be prepared for the danger and death as Oscar ran, first losing Sammy and then meeting others who took him under their wings to provide for him. Months and years went by and Oscar celebrated his 10th birthday while he was still running... What was in the future and would he ever be free from running. Did freedom even exist?

For during his trip, the Civil War had begun and soldiers were fighting, sometimes forcing them to take a different trail. And as the Railroad became better known, their masters began to put rewards on their heads to bring them back...

A possibly well known story to many...and yet, so startlingly different. Seeing everything through Oscar's eyes as he, first, grew up enslaved and afraid, only to be forced to leave his Mama's grave and his few friends and run into the unknown...

Readers are faced with the tension, that ongoing fear, the hatred faced by drunken men who delighted in hurting he and others for no reason...and, worse, to see those he loved die horrible deaths...one...by...one... 

It's time to remember. It's time to consider how Blacks did not immigrate like, perhaps, you and I came to America through our ancestors. Blacks came as prisoners, chained and sold to the highest bidder... You might even think about the recent activity of the KKK and other hate groups and come to see that we still, today, need to ensure that individuals who hate are not permitted to once again require protection from those haters...

My recommendation for this latest book, by Paulette Mahurin, is to consider it a must-read...It's an important contribution to Mahurin's own library and I encourage you to consider this as well as her other troubling, powerfully-written stories...


GABixlerReviews

Paulette Mahurin lives with her husband Terry and two dogs, Max and Bella, in Ventura County, California. She grew up in West Los Angeles and attended UCLA, where she received a Master’s Degree in Science. While in college, she won awards and was published for her short-story writing. One of these stories, Something Wonderful, was based on the couple presented in His Name Was Ben, which she expanded into a fictionalized novel in 2014. Her first novel, The Persecution of Mildred Dunlap, made it to Amazon bestseller lists and won awards, including best historical fiction of the year 2012 in Turning the Pages Magazine. Her third novel, To Live Out Loud, won international critical acclaim and made it to multiple sites as favorite read book of 2015. Her fourth book, The Seven Year Dress, made it to the top ten best seller lists on Amazon U.S., Amazon U.K., and Amazon Australia. Semi-retired, she continues to work part-time as a Nurse Practitioner in Ventura County. When she’s not writing, she does pro-bono consultation work with women with cancer, works in the Westminster Free Clinic as a volunteer provider, volunteers as a mediator in the Ventura County Courthouse for small claims cases, and involves herself, along with her husband, in dog rescue. Profits from her books go to help rescue dogs from kill shelters. 

Thinking of Our Independence Day While Reading The Seven Year Dress by Paulette Mahurin...

Everything can be taken from a man but one thing:

 the last of human freedoms - 

to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, 

to choose one's own way. 

Viktor E. Frankl

It was strange, sad, reading Paulette Mahurin's latest book while we in America are singing and dancing, enjoying the freedom that America presents to us... Yet, Mahurin was able to take me away from our own freedom and immerse myself in the story of Helen Stein, one of the few who lived to celebrate Auschwitz Liberation Day. Sometimes, I lost myself so deeply into the story that I had to break away and read a cat mystery book, so that I could maintain some sense of separation in order to express my thoughts coherently.

Mahurin received the gift of this story directly from the woman who lived to share it with us. It is fiction based upon fact plus research to confirm and round out the story of what was happening. You will understand that, especially since Helen spent four years of that time of terror, underground, totally away from the world, alone only with her brother...

The book shares the intimacy of her life as she faced what had happened--what she saw, what she heard from other trusted individuals, but, more, what she herself experienced...

We all think we know about what happened during that time...but we don't. We can't. Even while reading this book, which is vividly detailed and written so authentically that many will think we are hearing the story directly from the woman sharing her story. While that means that the author has done an outstanding job in writing the book, it also has revealed to many of us a much more intimate, unforgettable tale of inhumanity that cannot be imaged except when we are forced to face the reality of it.  With a German heritage on both sides of my family, I can only get lost in heartache of what Hitler brought about that was so devastating that none of us will ever forget or accept it as anything more than the actions of the devil himself...and as we see, of his many cruel and evil followers.

--LOVIS CORINTH

The story begins when a young girl seeking a room to rent meets an older lady who has a room, but asks a lot of questions before she is willing to show the girl the room...

I was looking to rent a room. She was looking for family. I needed a place to live. She needed to fill an empty void in her heart. But it would take me a few weeks to realize the role I was to play in her life.

The author uses the Prologue to tell this story as they got to know each other and finally, the woman opens up to the young girl... The rest of the book is her story... began the day that the young girl spied the tattoo of numbers on her arm and realized what she'd gone through... One of the stories was about a picture frame holding a small scrap of cloth...it was once part of a dress...

Early 1920s Who could have possibly imagined that in three years a decorated veteran of World War I would become the leader of the National Socialist German Workers’ Party, and years later become Chancellor of Germany and annihilate millions of Jews? Certainly not me, Helen Stein.

While Hitler was gaining popularity in the German Workers’ Party in 1919, I was born to a Jewish family in Berlin. My father, Irving Stein, at thirty-one-years old, was a government lawyer who adored his wife— my mother, Rose— a few years younger than he. Altogether, there were six of us. I was the youngest of the four siblings: Lawrence was seven years older, Shana was five years older, and Ben was four years older than me...

I came into the world in a time of great turmoil, civil unrest, and economic upheaval in the aftermath of The Great War that took the lives of more than nine million people. Ending the year before I was born, the war sent ripples throughout the countries that were affected, causing massive political, cultural, and social changes. Especially impacted was Germany, where a socialist revolution led to the formulation of a number of communist parties. The Treaty of Versailles (written by the victors, of course) placed blame for the entire war on Germany and levied a fine of 132 billion marks— more than 31 billion dollars— to keep the German economy from flourishing. To honor the restitution, the German Republic printed large amounts money. The economic effect was devastating. Hyperinflation made the German mark near valueless, and Germany fell into default. As a result, German territories were transferred to other countries. Because many Germans never accepted the treaty as legal and viewed the taking of their territories as hostile, the German Workers’ Party, later renamed the National Socialist German Workers’ Party (NSGWP, referred to in English as the Nazi Party), emerged. Created as a means to draw workers away from communist uprisings, the Party’s initial strategy was anti-big business, anti-bourgeois, and anti-capitalism, although these features were later downplayed to get support from industrial organizations. Harboring anti-Semitism from its founding, in the 1930s its focus would change to anti-Semitic and anti-Marxist ideas. I remember my parents talking about those earlier events through the years, but I never understood the foreboding tone in their voices until much later, in late 1938, when all hell broke loose...

~~~

Helen was just a child, but she was a curious one, and wasn't hesitant to listen to adult conversations to try to discover whatever she could. But, still, there wasn't much to worry about then. Her next-door neighbors had a son, Max, with whom she became close friends and she moved through school years much like all of us...Max and she were inseparable, but there came a day when Ben came home upset because Max had started to treat him differently. Helen demanded to know what he'd said and he finally admitted he'd call him a goy... As time went by, though, as Helen asked questions, Max finally hinted that he liked boys and Helen surmised that he liked Ben...

But it was more that the atmosphere was changing. Jews were targeted on an ongoing basis, as more and more government sanctions were announced and acted upon... and soon Helen realized that Max had just as many issues with what was happening as her family did...

In that silence, I came to understand that Max and I each had something very real to fear as “undesirables” living in Germany at this moment in history. The difference was that, if he was very smart and lucky, he might be able to pretend that he was not an “undesirable.” I was smart, but would never be that lucky. But I could already see the price he paid for concealing his true self. He was guarded and moody, not the sweet Max I grew to love and call my best friend. His secret was eating away at him, but revealing his secret— even to me— could have dire consequences. Many minutes had passed before I took his hand. “Let’s go somewhere safe.”

Max was forced to play a role and join the Germans forces, while the Stein family was stripped of their citizenship and employment. Soon, Helen and others were, first, learning to sew, and then acting as seamstresses to keep the family going... But then people on the streets were shot, killed for no reason and finally, the Stern home was soon to be attacked...

Max had gained some credibility and had been able to learn much of plans...It was Max who contacted Helen, and later Ben, trying to get them out of town, which he succeeded in doing, but the rest of the family were killed and/or taken (only the sister may have been still alive.) Max and taken Ben and Helen to his family's farm and they lived in the lower storage cellar...for four years...with only Max who came as often as he could to bring them fresh food and other supplies...and one day he brought Helen a dress...

Max went to a bag he’d brought. “Something for you, Helen.” When he handed a dress to me, I started to cry. He knew I loved my dresses, how they made me feel appealing, special. Boys paid attention to me when I had a nice dress on. This dress was a symbol of normalcy, my femininity, and my past. And I prayed it would also be my future. I hoped to see a day when I would be free to be out in the streets enjoying my life in a lovely new dress. The two dresses I’d been wearing in the cellar were filthy. Scrubbing the cellar’s grime from them with soap at the sink couldn’t remove the stains that had become part of the threadbare fabric. Grease and years of dirt covered everything in the cellar. Safety was worth the sacrifice in cleanliness— Ben and I had agreed. But both my dear brother and best friend understood how much I missed feeling like a proper young woman, and how much a new dress means to a proper young woman...
I slipped into my new, clean, beautiful dress: a blue cotton floral print with swirls of designs surrounding flowers. My fingers moved over the fabric, encircling the rose petals and luscious green leaves on the pattern. For a brief moment, it wasn’t a dress, but nature— and I was encircled in it...

~~~

And it was that one act of love and kindness that led to danger! Because the farmhouse was invaded after Max had left (and later was killed along with his family as sympathizers.) The four years in the basement had ended, only to lead to much worse... Ben didn't make it, while Helen's simple, smart thinking to say that she was a seamstress saved her life...leaving Helen on her way to Auschwitz...

“My Papa told me life is precious.
I had to die many times to truly understand this.”

~~~

Paulette Mahurin has the talent to pull her readers into the story she has molded. This is a page-turner, although hard to read at times. It should be, shouldn't it? Because life is indeed precious and only a few of the millions that Hitler planned to murder, made it out to tell us exactly what happened. Horrific, atrocious historical events once occurred. This book forces you to live what those millions suffered. I believe readers will be better for reading it...I know I am! Highly recommended. Maybe even a must-read for most of us!

GABixlerReviews

Paulette Mahurin lives with her husband Terry and three dogs, Max, Bella, and Lady Luck in Ventura County, California. She grew up in West Los Angeles and attended UCLA, where she received a Master’s Degree in Science.

While in college, she won awards and was published for her short-story writing. One of these stories, Something Wonderful, was based on the couple presented in His Name Was Ben, which she expanded into the fictionalized novel in 2014. The first week out, His Name Was Ben, made it to top ten books sold in the Amazon Kindle store (topic: health/wellness/cancer). Her first novel, The Persecution of Mildred Dunlap, made it to Amazon bestseller lists and won awards, including best historical fiction of the year 2012 in Turning the Pages Magazine.

Semi-retired, she continues to work part-time as a Nurse Practitioner in Ventura County. When she’s not writing, she does pro-bono consultation work with women with cancer, works in the Westminister Free Clinic as a volunteer provider, volunteers as a mediator in the Ventura County Courthouse for small claims cases, and involves herself, along with her husband, in dog rescue. 

Profits from her books go to help rescue dogs.

Paulette Mahurin Provides Excellent Debut Novel!

I love the cover of this novel by Paulette Mahurin, don't you? It perfectly sets the approximate period of time and allows us to better envision the cast of characters...and what a cast...

Please travel with me back to 1895 into a small town in Nevada. The first thing I learned was that world news was delivered by telegraph and posted centrally to be read by citizens.

the Dreyfus Affair divided France; Booker T. Washington gave his Atlanta address; Richard Olney, United States Secretary of State, expanded the effects of the Monroe Doctrine in settling a boundary dispute between the United Kingdom and Venezuela; and Oscar Wilde was tried and convicted for gross indecency under Britain’s recently passed law that made sex between males a criminal offense.

This poignant story is sad and yet beautiful... Mahurin has put it all right out there in her debut novel--all of the internal feelings in the world that are used to either love and support others or to destroy and hurt. It comes to mind that, in many ways, if the clothes on the cover were updated to the present and some of today's headlines replaced those for that year, that in many parts of the country, this story could easily hone in on what still happens in America. Perhaps that is why the author chose this as her topic? For whatever reason, his historical-looking novel is just as important, timely and relevant today as it was in 1895!

One of the significant additions I especially enjoyed was relevant quotes at the beginning of each chapter by Oscar Wilde. Although he appears in the novel only through news releases, he soon becomes the main individual around which...the gossip begins...

The Gossiper 

by Jean DeBuffet

"In contrast to Mildred, Josie thrived 

on being the center of attention.

Outside of them both being women, 

there was absolutely no similarity 

in appearance between the two. 

Whereas Mildred was a large woman with

 a face masculine in appearance, 

Josie was pretty in a feminine way with

 curved lips and eyebrows that accentuated 

her blue-green eyes and overly

 dilated pupils seeming always to be alert

 like an animal stalking prey. 

Were Josie to have a different personality

 or attitude she could be beautiful, 

like Edra, but her demeanor was so distasteful

 with constant faultfinding in others

 that it cast a dark ugliness over her.

 The mere comparison of Edra to Josie,

 for Mildred, was like comparing good with evil, 

beauty with ugliness, complete opposites 

that had nothing desirable in common."

 http://www.nashersculpturecenter.org

/object.aspx?ObjectID=21. .

Every town, every church, every organization seems to have at least one--she feels it is her responsibility to pinpoint issues of major importance--to be discussed, embellished, passed on, and regurgitated again and again. She also normally has an entourage who are not quite so bold, but who are quite willing to pass on the latest as presented by that woman--the town gossip! I cringe at the potential damage done by this type of woman. I must say that this author has "nailed" her perfectly and I enjoyed very much hating her and wanting her to be...
punished... Did you ever notice that America has a tendency to send such an offender away, rather than dealing with the situation? Nevertheless, the ending was appropriate, for that time...

Mildred Dunlap was the recipient of emotional abuse from this woman since she was a small child... But it had affected her greatly even if she never responded or shared her feelings. Mildred was now a wealthy woman who had inherited much from her father. She quietly used that wealth to help many people in that small town, but she was still hated by some and always someone who the town gossip included whenever she could.

But the latest news about Oscar Wilde had caused her great fear, for she knew that it would result in much discussion about why he had been arrested.

She immediately began to plan how to protect herself and her cousin, Edra, who, after being sexually abused at an early age, lived in fear thereafter, and had ultimately turned to Mildred for the love she needed...

She (and I) both wondered what would have happened if she had never started, but it was too late...

A local woman had died after a long illness, and as it was normal for neighbors to be visiting the home, helping when they could, Mildred decided that she should let him know she was interested... Edra was not happy about her plan...

Mildred thought this would be safe, thinking that he would never consider her seriously because of her own looks! It is impossible to merely tell you what happened in that little town, mostly when Josie opened her mouth!
But, there were also good people in that town...and they simply began to act as they felt they should...

Intense, disturbing, I found myself totally immersed in concern for Mildred and Edra. But I also had great empathy for Gus, a man who ran the local store, who had hidden the truth his entire life, by simply showing another person to the world. We are all so different from each other. Paulette Mahurin shows us, however, that we are all so very much alike! There is much to learn through her story if we open our hearts to what is said.

May this book be read widely and Mahurin's story be recognized for what it says to each of us--all of us!

And just an added note for the present lives we live...That gossiper is easily talking to many more these days. Please watch what you say on whatever social network you join...

Mahurin certainly "shows, not tells" us as this wonderful writer has easily entered into her character's true nature and captured what drives each to do what we choose. Listen and learn and perhaps we can all work to stop the persecution of one of today's citizens named "Mildred Dunlap"! Bullies are alive and well in 2012... History fans will enjoy the context and setting, but this drama deserves far-reading attention. Kudos to the author!


GABixlerReviews

Paulette Mahurin is a Nurse Practitioner who lives in Ojai, California with her husband Terry and their three dogs—Eli, Max, and Bella. She practices women’s health in a rural clinic and writes in her spare time.

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