Sheryl Roberts Hair Bead Shoes
Many of my fondest memories of living in the American South evolved around sitting on the front porch and plaiting the hair of friends, neighbors and relatives. We could spend hours giggling, telling stories and calling out to each and every person that walked by. It was too hot to work or even play too hard so instead we bantered back and forth with each stroke of the hairbrush.
When my lifelong friend Sheryl Roberts from Houston, Texas thought about making Soul Shoes in memory of the children who die from violence, she also thought about the many young girls whose hair she had plaited and made pretty with colored rings. Sheryl has a deep awareness of the danger many children live and breathe – she’s lived it herself. As a grandmother she is protective and adoring of the children in her world and always lets them know that she has the patience to listen and the laughs to share.
Sheryl’s Soul Shoes meant alot….and said alot. It was even more important to me to hear her tell me that she enjoyed making them and that in the glueing of each and every little plastic bauble she felt comforted and creative…and good. For decades Sheryl and I have listened to each other and been in each other’s corner, knowing always that it was part of our pact to remind each other of our inherent goodness, even during the times we did not feel good at all.
Thanks you for the beaded shoes, Sheryl. Thank you. – Jinx Davis
