Mama

"There's no agony like bearing an untold story inside of you."                                                                                     ----Maya Angelou

Reva: My mama's name.
Aver:  Reva spelled backwards.

"If I could write, I'd write a story nobody would believe."
---Reva Rice Allison

aver:

1. : to declare positively
2. : law, to verify or prove to be true in pleading a case

Retrieved from https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/aver

"One of these days, you'll walk a mile in my shoes. Mark my words. You’ll see the hell I've been through," Mama said repeatedly over the years.

She was right. I did walk a mile in her shoes. I walked some of the same roads she walked in spite of my determination to do the exact opposite of everything she did. I would have denied her existence in my life if I could have. Lord knows I tried. So deep was this desire that she was “Mama” to her four children while I am "Momma” to my four children. 

She occupies quite a bit of real estate in my journals and in the memoir I’ve worked on for the past few years. As I "mark my words," I hear Mama in the background averring hers.