About the Author

Jean was born in poverty at Harlem Hospital in New York City in 1949. She graduated cum laude, with a BA in education from Herbert H. Lehman College in 1974. And then she earned an MA in education of physically handicapped from Teacher’s College, Columbia University in 1977. Her background includes teaching common branch subjects to special education and regular students in elementary school and nontraditional settings. Rolling around in her wheelchair, she feels like a warrior of sorts, fighting her own private battle for dignity on the home front. In 1989, she married and reverse migrated to the Deep South where she has family ties. Jean and her deaf husband, Howard, worked to help others with disabilities learn how to live and work independently in their communities. She has discovered that just because she can’t talk doesn’t mean she can’t speak. And just because she doesn’t walk doesn’t mean there aren’t still peaks to climb in her mind. Her goal in writing is to reach out to readers and provide a look inward so they can see the world through her eyes. She’s hoping to give insight to someone walking where she’s been. Or desiring greater social awareness and sensitivity. By unveiling her experience as an African American woman with dual disabilities in a deeply personal way, she attempts to put others in touch with what it feels like to be her, thus the title Touch Me! I’m for Real. Retracing her family’s journey, she shares what she’s been through and what she gained. She traces her spiritual pilgrimage also and recounts the blessings God bestowed on her beginning with the legacy of faith left by her elders. She believes old-time religion can still help people to overcome in these changing times.