Without waiting a beat, my mother said, “Yes.”

“Mom!”

“But not physically,” she clarified. “You have to stay in there and fight with your heart, fight with your mind. You’re the First Lady of one of the major churches in Washington, D.C.. They know this and with time, they’ll treat you that way.”

“Ugh!” I groaned. “Why does it feel like I’m always fighting?”

“You’re not always fighting. You didn’t have any issues at Xavier.”

“No, I didn’t.” I paused. “Because my best friend would have handled it. She would have shut it all down.”

Now my mom laughed out loud. “You got that right. That’s Dru, true till the end. But this is nothing new, sweetheart. You’ve always had your distracters; you can handle it.”

I released another moan. “I don’t know how you did it. I don’t know how you dealt with this for so long.”

She paused as if she wanted to give me a thoughtful answer. “Well, for starters, we didn't have all of this co-mingling between churches, so I didn’t interact with a lot of First Ladies. I do understand, though, the need for the Council because the way everything is set up now, you ladies need the support of one another. This journey is certainly not for the weak or weary and it becomes very lonely. It’ll be good to have women you can talk to who are going through the same kinds of challenges. These women will understand what it means to be married to a pastor and they may be able to give you ideas that I can’t even give you.

“It’s going to be great for you to form a friendship with them because the female members of the church are a different breed.” There was just a hint of her tone becoming deeper. “They can be callous and cut-throat and when it comes to the pastor..." Her words trailed off, but she didn’t have to say more. I’d seen her struggle, I knew her story. And even as good as my dad had been to her, the disrespect from the women had squeezed my mother’s heart until the day my father died.

"Anyway, this is what you have to remember.” She paused as if she wanted to make sure I heard her words. "Allen blood runs through your veins, honey. And we Allens do not allow anyone to run us off anywhere, especially not women.” She stopped again. “You belong there, young lady. You belong in that group because you have too much to offer. Just like the youth that Jeremy brings to New Kingdom, you’re going to bring fresh ideas to the First Ladies Council. They are so blessed to have you and by the next meeting, they will all realize this.”

I smiled. My mother was right. This had been one meeting. Surely, once the First Ladies got to know me, they would come to love me....

"It's so tacky that she would be fighting the other woman." I turned my attention back to the conversation and Cecily was still dragging on.