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"You can choose your friends, but not your family."
No truer words were ever spoken. How we are assigned our ancestors is nothing short of a pig-in-a-poke. Not one of us has a say in which two X & Y chromosomes do the tango that endows us with our traits, appearances, talents, and much more. So, if we know nothing, or very little about our ancestors, should we leave the unknown alone? Or should we go fishing in our family closet with no clue what we might catch?
Bobby Ray Raford chooses to leave it alone. He says, "What you don't know can't haunt you. But if you fish and hook an ancestor or two from a bad pool of DNA, that knowledge will always be swimming in your memory pond."
When Bobby Ray was seven years old, in his young mind, he felt he was loved. He had a mother, father, and grandmother. Then, his life changed - a lot. One day his father leaves for work and never returns. Two weeks later, his mother follows suit. And for the next twenty-three years, his maternal grandmother lovingly raised him with honorable, solid values. She was his only family. Why would he want to fish for more ancestors? Besides, Gramma never spoke a word about any of their kinfolk. So why should he? He doesn't want to and he won't.
"We'll see about that."
Every family has a closet with many, many shelves, cubby holes, and hidey holes. Left closed, long-ago secrets, personalities, and kinfolks' actions are generally not known. But when someone is driven by the desire to learn about their ancestors, they will pay hard-earned money to have that door pried open.
Bobby Ray was born and raised in Cave Spring, Georgia. The thirty-year-old stays busy trying to keep his life on track and succeed. The only family he really knows is his grandmother, Glenda.
As a cook at the retirement home where his elderly Gramma resides, Bobby Ray finds he needs another job to supplement his paltry income. He hears about a company called 'Family Closet' that's hiring researchers to assist clients in search of their long-ago-dead ancestors. This popular craze puzzles him since he feels there's nothing he wants to learn about his family because it won't change his life, although it could reveal truths he'd rather not know. After he becomes a popular researcher, he discovers with practically every client, facets of their past that support his 'not for me' stance on climbing into his musty, moth-infested closet.
However, after a terrorist attack in a Baltimore jazz club/restaurant, he is suddenly reunited with his mother after twenty-three years - for a short time. That incident opens his closet door, allowing small leads and snippets of secrets to slip out. Will he unwillingly learn the history of his lineage? If a person's ancestry was so important, why hasn't his Gramma shared her knowledge? Could knowing the past alter his present? Bobby Ray continues to give his best each day. His love for his Gramma remains strong.
"True friends are sometimes closer than family - and might even be family!"
A southern family saga filled with real life experiences, newfound friends, difficult struggles, and love and forgiveness.
Lee Carey lives with his loving wife/editor, Kay, in a small coastal town known as Sandbridge Beach in Virginia Beach. His writing career began in '99. To date, Lee has penned eleven novels in various genres, along with two compilations of short stories. He enjoys writing, golf, skydiving, surfing, fishing, and hanging out on the beach with friends, Kay, and their rescue doggie (half Lab & half Husky), Angel.
Lee's attitude is: 'Paddle hard for every wave... it might be your best ride.'
His sign-off slogan: 'Keep smilin'... '
Lee's website: LeeCarey-author.com
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