Farewell Extraordinary Storyteller, Nobel Prize Winner & SMG: Toni Morrison

Toni Morrison 1939-2019 - Single Mother, Literary Titan and One Of My Superheroes

“You wanna fly? You’ve gotta give up the shit that weighs you down.”

Toni Morrison

I was 22 years old when I first read one of Toni Morrison’s books. I remember the exact day so clearly. I was backpacking through Colombia with my best friend and her brother. We had just endured a 10 hour bus trip through a stomach-churning mountain pass, and had arrived exhausted at a hostel at Bogata. The place was abuzz - but not in a good way. Three fellow backpackers - two Israelis and a Swede had decided to go horseback riding through guerrilla country. They were captured and were being held for ransom. The night previously all three had stayed at this exact hostel.
My clothes clung to me like the skin on an over-boiled potato. My traveling companions were bartering with the front desk about the price of our accommodation. I was sitting on my bright blue backpack, hands on my face, happily creating my wrinkles of the future. Suddenly my eye seized on a pile of messy books stacked in a corner. They looked like the remnants of a used-used-used bookstall. The kinds of books that are so damaged that even the Salvation Army doesn’t want them. I started scanning titles - most in Spanish, some in English. One title with a red binding practically leapt out of the pile towards me ‘The Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison.”

I had of course heard of Toni Morrison, and knew she was an immensely talented author. But had no real clue about any of her books or what they were about. I opened the first page of that book and for the next four hours didn’t move off that hard stone floor. I was plunged into the foreign world of “Milkman” as Toni’s words swirled through my head more like song than like prose. I was completely captivated.

In my life there have been about ten books, who’s impact has been so pivotal - that I can honestly say I was a different person after reading them. The Song of Solomon is definitely one of them.

As the years progressed, Toni’s works have never been far away. Though I never met her, I always felt comfort knowing her voice was one that rang out so loudly, so authentically - for everything she believed in.

She too was a Single Mother - raising her two boys on her own, while she penned her first book in the hour before bedtime after a long day at work. Toni Morrison danced to the drum of no one’s but her own. She found her voice. She used her voice. And she was unapologetic. Without a doubt she is one of the greatest writers of all time.

I still have that weather-beaten, now barely red copy of the Song of Solomon in my bookcase. It has pride of place.

Thank you Toni Morrison. My heart aches we have lost you but I am so grateful for the wisdom you left behind and the lives you touched along the way.

"At some point in life the world's beauty becomes enough. You don't need to photograph, paint or even remember it. It is enough. No record of it needs to be kept and you don't need someone to share it with or tell it to. When that happens—that letting go—you let go because you can."

—Tar Baby