In the early 1990s, there was a people—some born slaves, some born descendants—who struggled to be a people. It was a transitional period where there was no clear tomorrow. Born in and of those times was Annie Pearl Jones. She had curiosity about life that tarnished her life, leaving her preoccupied with death. She has a family that could not understand or console her. And so it was, as her family struggled to endure those times, Pearl focused on death as death on her. Pearl was the daughter of Jackson and Lizzie Lee Jones and the older sister of my mother, Lola Mae (Monk). The Story of Pearl is my mother's memories of a sister she loved and never really knew.