Mary L. Brown-Wilson shares her story in Mary & A-Half: Me, Myself & I. She will hold a book signing from noon-4 p.m. Saturday at Konehete Park.
Murphy – Mary Brown-Wilson has lived a life worth writing about.
From moving to Cherokee County as a young black child in the early 1960s, to enduring the hardships of racism and drug addiction, to earning her college degree from Tri-County Community College, Brown-Wilson wants others to know if she can endure, they can, too.
“I am not ashamed of me,” Brown-Wilson said. “God wanted me to live my life and he wants me to share my story.”
Brown-Wilson grew up in the close-knit church community in Texana. Throughout her formative years, she encountered racism, colorism and childhood trauma. Following several rocky years at Murphy High chool, Brown-Wilson moved to Atlanta before returning to Cherokee County in the 1980s to enroll at Tri-County, where she met someone who would change her life.
“Dr. Carl Dockery taught me how to write,” Brown-Wilson recalled. “He helped me learn how to use my voice in my writing.”
While at Tri-County, Brown-Wilson edited the college’s newspaper, The Road Runner, and even wrote columns for the Cherokee Scout about black history.
After her time in college, Brown-Wilson found herself slipping into the grips of drug addiction, a battle that lasted 11 years.
“I began doing cocaine and it took over me,” Brown-Wilson said. “I lived in three states and five cities during the course of my addiction, hoping each place would bring a change. It never did. It took God finally coming to get me in October of 2005.”
Brown-Wilson was arrested in a sting operation, when she said she realized God had sent angels to bring her back after years of her ignoring his messages for her to get sober. After spending 14 and a half months in a program aimed at rehabilitation and societal re-entry, Mary was released. She will celebrate 16 years of sobriety this fall.
In 2008, Brown-Wilson returned to Tri-County to earn a degree in occupational technology and a certificate in medical assisting. Prior to her graduation in 2010, Brown-Wilson spent two years as a work-study in the college’s library, a time she remembers with great fondness.
“I truly believe God gave me Tri-County to learn and then to protect and shepherd me,” Brown-Wilson said.
In a culmination of finding her voice and wanting to share her story, Brown-Wilson published her memoir, Mary & A-Half: Me, Myself & I, last fall. The memoir symbolizes a 14-year process that required Brown-Wilson to face her pain head-on and reflect on how her life experiences had shaped her.
“The title represents each part of me because I felt I didn’t need nobody but me, myself and I,” Brown-Wilson explained. “ ‘Me’ is the meanest part of me; ‘I’ is the spoiled part of me; and ‘myself’ is the spirit that God gave me.”
While Brown-Wilson resides in Ohio, at the behest of her many friends in Cherokee County, she will hold a book signing event from noon-4 p.m. Saturday at Konehete Park as part of a book tour through the South.
“I love Murphy,” Brown-Wilson said. “The community has been so supportive of me throughout my
entire life, and it is an
honor for them to have invited me back to celebrate my book.”
Brown-Wilson’s book can be purchased at her signing event and is also available on Amazon.