Unraveling Mystery and Memory: A Riveting Dive into Nin Andrews’ Son of a Bird
“Son of a bird” was what Andrews’s Black nanny called her when she’d been naughty. Even as she paints loving portraits of her nanny through poetry, the white-skinned Andrews wonders whether her portrayal of Miss Mary is racist. “Don’t mention your Black nanny,” her father used to tell her, “or people will think you’re a spoiled brat, a modern-day Scarlett O’Hara.”
Andrews’s parents often scolded her about revealing too much of herself to others. They held tight to their own secrets — her father, a closeted gay man; her mother, an undiagnosed autistic woman. Andrews’s parents took the idea of privacy to dangerous levels. She remembers her mother hissing, “don’t tell anyone else” after Andrews talked of seeing Death continually crouching in the corner of her room. When Andrews struggled with her own mental health conditions and suicidal ideations, her parents told her she didn’t need professional help and even barred her from getting it — not wanting others in town to know their business.
