Age confers the right of individuality because it is assumes a history of responsibility. In the case of the Delany sisters this is certainly true. Throughout Having Our Say, the message comes through loud and clear that these two sisters, with over two hundred years of living between them, are survivors rather than victims of life. Having Our Say is one of those inspirational books that make you realize that however bad you think your slot in life may be, it could be worst; that there are people who do a lot more with a lot less. The people who do more, like the Delany sisters, simply start with a love for the gift of life. Attitude is the key.
Amy Hill Hearth, the author who put the Delany anecdotes into a chronological history, correctly points out that it is not a story about "black" people or even "women". It is an American story. In a real sense, Having Our Say puts flesh and bone on a slew of generalities.
There is a current of belief running throughout Having Our Say. It is nicely epitomized by Bessie, the feisty Delany, when she says, "1 thought I could change the world. It took me a hundred years to figure out I can't change the world. I can only change Bessie. And, honey, that ain't easy, either." While she learned that lesson, we are provided a swift tour through a hundred plus years of living life in post-Civil War America.
Bessie Delany, the feisty one, became a Dentist in June of 1923. She practiced dentistry in Harlem during the Harlem Renaissance. There were times when she and her brother--there were seven brothers and three sisters in the family--could not pay their office rent and were booted out onto the street. As she said, they scrapped together the rent and went back to their patients. Determination.
Sarah Louise Delany (Sadie, as she is called) was a high school teacher and retired from the New York Public School system in 1960. Hers is the reasoned voice, the voice of understanding and compromise. She calls herself a "mama's child" because she followed her mother around like a shadow and always did what she was told. Sadie is, as she herself says, a balance to Bessie.