Sullivan Family: This is a family dominated by strong, gifted and independent women. One participated in a voter registration drive as a high school student in the early 1950s and encountered the KKK in Alabama. Another left home to make her own way in the world. Two more, demanded that a white woman “pay us what was owed us.”

Sojourner Truth once said, “If the first woman God ever made was strong enough to turn the world upside down all alone, these women together ought to be able to turn it back, and get it right side up again!”

I have loved their strength and grieved that the same strength has made them, at times, unhappier, sicker, and more exhausted than any other people. They have been held responsible for a power they didn’t possess. They’ve been discouraged from demanding equality. They had to silence themselves to be acceptable to others.

These women were known more for their directness than their subtlety and diplomacy. Truth for them was uncomplicated and needed to be spoken in its simplicity. Not everyone could handle it. Sometimes, their words hurt or angered — but never for too long.

They always found their way back to you because they loved deeply and faithfully. They’ve stood with you when your world was turned upside down and somehow managed to help you “get it right side up again.”

(By the way, we take delight in our men too. But, that’s another story …)