The Strawberry Room--
And Other Places Where a Woman Finds Herself
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I realized that moving into the strawberry room may have seemed like a solution, but it opened up a whole new hornet’s nest of emotional turmoil. I walked down the hall one night after refreshing myself with a shower, lotion, and fragrance. The journey down the hall hurt my pride and made me nervous, but I had to go. The journey made me sad as it I walked past the room of one son and then the other. They seemed to almost be men then, thanks to the lessons this class called family was teaching them. The journey also made me apprehensive. I was on my way down the hall to the one man I once thought would be the only man. Now I was just going out of need. Or maybe it was out of curiosity. Or both. What about love? That emotion had gotten suspended in air. It dangled down between us sometimes when we made gestures toward conversation. But it always seemed like a goddess grabbed it up, let it hang again in suspension as if to protect it from pollution. Tina had sung, “What’s love got to do with it?” I now understood why somebody had had to write those lyrics. I wanted to make love again, to try to reach him one last time, feeling at the same time that I could possibly embarrass myself.
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About the Book
What happens to a woman when the room that was once the guest room of her home becomes the space of self-imposed exile? What does she tell her children? What does she tell herself? How does she survive her marriage coming to an end without becoming bitter, hard, or cold? What if her time in that space was actually the key to her spiritual destiny? This inspiring memoir attempts to answer these questions and shares a riveting story of how one woman navigated the journey from one of life’s darkest moments through the gateway to joy and to a new understanding of the calling on her life.
About the Author
Marilyn Sanders Mobley, PhD was born in Akron, Ohio and now lives in Shaker Heights, Ohio. She is Vice President for Inclusion, Diversity and Equal Opportunity and a tenured professor of English at Case Western Reserve University. She is a Toni Morrison scholar and published author in the fields of African American literature, Black studies, women’s studies, cultural studies, higher education, diversity and social justice. She is also a lay minister at Arlington Church of God in Akron, Ohio.