About this submission

Four middle-aged, African American siblings reluctantly agree to take turns to be the caregiver for their 80 year old mother. Three months of each year, each sibling tends to their mother, Hattie, at their respective homes, then hands her off. While Hattie is sharp and has her wits, she hobbles on a cane, and is no longer physically or financially able to stay afloat on her own once the family home and neighborhood is in ruin.

Soon we learn that each sibling has their own issues and is in no way the solution for managing an ailing parent. Though they love their mother, Hattie is the classic “unwanted child.” As the children deal with their own personal crisis’ we see the dueling crippling dynamic between the siblings, tricky mother and child hangups , a complex family history, and guilt with the realization that the children can never “parent” their mother as well as she parented them.

Creator
Sheri is a journalist at her core. She was a TV News Producer in the Saginaw (CBS) and Detroit (NBC) markets. She has written for newspapers, TV News, magazines and more recently her memoir, Daring to Live: How the Power of Sisterhood and Taking Risks Can Jump-Start Your Joy, for Baker Books (2020). The memoir chronicles her journey of healing following the death of her husband and the friendship with three girlfriends…they call themselves the Dare Divas™. Together they skydived, cliff jumped, rode motorcycles, drove Nascars, hiked Mt. Kilimanjaro, and more. For 65 days Sheri journeyed solo to 17 countries across Africa and Asia following her husband’s death. It was her heartbreak tour. When she returned she wrote about her time away and feats with the Dare Divas in MORE and National Geographic Traveler Magazines. The later went viral. Sheri toured the Midwest at Barnes and Noble locations in Michigan, Indiana, Illinois and Ohio where audiences took interest in the Daring to Live challenge and how to channel their own inner adventurer. In February 2020, Daring to Live was optioned by Paramount Pictures. DeVon Franklin will produce. For twenty years Sheri was a marketing professional working with an educational publisher and an automotive society championing libraries and small businesses. Sheri has a B.A. in Political Science from University of Michigan-Dearborn and an MBA from Lawrence Technological University. more...

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