她出生在美国纽约州乡下的一个农民家庭,一生下来就没有见过父亲。小学上到四年级时,母亲和一个相爱已久的黑人青年离家出走,从此杳无音讯。为了生计,她只得辍学,到一家农场当雇工。她每天5点起床,要做30多人的早饭,然后去割草、照料牲畜、熬奶油,一直忙到晚上10点才能上床睡觉。 She was born in a peasant family in the countryside of New York, USA, and she had never seen her father in her lifetime. From elementary school to the fourth grade, my mother and a long-awaited young black man ran away from home without hearing the news. In order to earn a living, she had to drop out of school and work as a hired worker on a farm. She gets up at 5 o’clock every day, cooks breakfast for more than 30 people, then mows, cares for livestock, boils cream and stays busy until 10 o’clock in the evening to go to bed.