Jamelie, Jamelie: A Life Story

by Margaret Shamy Angelo

Life was not easy for Jamelie during her early years in Southern Lebanon. The role of a young women was limited to household chores with education available to very few, although Jamelie struggled to learn at every opportunity. Later, as the sixteen-year old bride of a man twelve years her senior, young Jamelie leaves Lebanon for a new life in the United States. Although sad to leave her family, Jamelie embarks with high expectations of a better life for her and her new family. Once in the United States, however, she quickly realizes that the streets are not paved in gold as she tries to settle into a cold, barren attic apartment in a working class city in New Jersey. JAMELIE, JAMELIE shows the determined optimism of a young immigrant woman, illiterate and uneducated, as she attempts to survive in a strange land. Within almost as many years, five children are born to Jamelie and just when the family seems to be managing financially, her husband becomes ill and dies. But JAMELIE, JAMELIE is not simply the story of one woman?s struggle to survive; it is the story of one woman?s love of life! Throughout the book, Jamelie?s optimism and sense of humor has the reader laughing out loud at some of her antics. Jamelie?s legacy is seen in the last section of the book where her five children and fifteen grandchildren, in personal essays, recall their own unique experiences with this incredible woman.

220 pages, Paperback

First published February 1, 2002