. DEE: Mama always said, "use it or lose it." I'm not sure what she meant, but I always felt like I had to be careful with my time. I knew she meant to use it wisely, but I guess I just took it to me

Writing from Maggie's perspective: I can still feel the intense heat as Mama and I stood there watching the Gaw Gaw woods, our home, going up in flames. My skin screamed in pain as I shielded my face from the embers with my arm and heard Dee - not “Wangero Leewanika Kemanjo” as she has renamed herself now - laughing aloud behind the trees. My heart felt like it was melting along with the childhood memories that went up in smoke that terrifying night. Honestly, I never truly understood Dee. She was always the more outgoing one, head held high, craving the better things in life. She got to go to school, and Mama had always been proud of her, I knew that. But she never saw our family's way of life, our precious heirlooms as anything more than a novelty, a simple relic of the past. When she came home that day, newly christened with an African name, flaunting her colorful African attire, acting outraged when Mama wouldn't let her take Grandma Dee's quilts, I was shocked. I was under the assumption those quilts were my inheritance, but then again, everything was always given to Dee first. Astonishingly, Mama did something I had never seen her do before. She snatched the quilts from Dee's hands, nearly causing her to tumble from surprise, and handed them to me. Dee was furious, huffing and puffing about how I wouldn't appreciate them. But she's wrong... every stitch in that quilt represented a part of our family’s history that I cherished. I thought about how I’d learned to live with my lot despite the scars, both physical and emotional. I thought about Mama and her enduring spirit, Big Dee, and all our ancestors whose stories were woven into those quilts. Being entrusted with the duty to continue the legacy, I realized I cherished our heritage much more than Dee ever would, and it wasn’t just 'Everyday Use'.