Mothers Lead: A Memoir | A Modern Woman | A Mission

By Jenny Athena Wong

"At the Very Beginning of Life, I Escaped Death Twice.”

As a second girl born to a family in China in the 1980’s, my Life was mandated to be terminated, my illegal birth evidence of a crime, and my survival a statistical improbability.

To immigrate to the United States as a young girl
To have great fortune to pursue an Education
To have opportunity for a Career in Silicon Valley
To have a voice to write my Story now

These too, are great Statistical Improbabilities

*

What’s wrong with this picture?

Why are basic human rights a statistical improbability simply because I was born female?

*

I wrote this book to spark purposeful dialogue and ignite action for positive change.
To illuminate real stories, real people who need Us to care.

Help me hold the torch.
Use Our Collective Power to extend our good fortune for All Others.

Let’s beat the statistics.

*

MOTHERS LEAD
A Memoir | A Modern Woman | A Mission

The Journey of a Girl to Motherhood
The Power of Women to Advance Evolution
The Mission to Empower Women Who Will In Turn Elevate All

This Powerful work reflects Universal Human Ideals that I have had the good fortune and privilege to live out since immigrating to the United States as a young girl.

Especially Advocacy for Civic Engagement, Education, Children's Welfare, Healthcare, and Social Services.

*

MOTHERS LEAD
Showcases a spectrum of uniquely crafted writing styles and discussions on a breadth of Purposeful Subjects, interlaced with Humor and Intrigue.

Part 1 - Illustrates Human Dilemmas as narrated through events of my Life

Part 2 - Presents Proposals and Conclusions for a Just Course of Action

Prose-poetry invites introspection and paints beauty as you see it in your own mind.
If you have compassion, you will cry. If you have joy, you will laugh.

Your support is an essential launchpad on Our Shared Journey.

Sincerely,
Jenny Athena Wong

CRITICAL REVIEWS

I was enchanted by Jenny Athena Wong’s first book. 

Jenny’s work lives in a space between poetry and prose. She’s defined a style all her own, which adds to the intimacy of this very personal memoir. 

It’s a work of Art. As such, Everyone will take away something unique to them. 

The story itself, unfolding through vignettes laced with observations and Calls to Action, crosses two Cultures and issues Challenges to both. It will be empowering to anyone who has felt excluded, threatened, or anxious. 

Any reader will be glad that Jenny survived the threats to her Life and challenges to her Strength to share this with us. 

There’s also a lot to smile about. Jenny’s keen awareness of the world around her leads to delightful observations. She notices the tickling sensation of a grasshopper’s kicks when captured in hand. 

She feels the World, invites Us to feel it with her, and to join her in making it a Better Place!

— Terry Joyce, San Francisco Toastmasters President

*

Part memoir, part meditation, Mothers Lead is an evocative and moving prose-poem tracing Jenny Athena Wong’s life-long battle against the strictures placed on females.

Starting with her brush with an early death as a second female child born to a family in China, we hear of the difficult road that brought Jenny to America, her decision as a San Francisco high school student to join ROTC against her family’s wishes and, throughout, her fierce determination to excel on her own terms. 

This book is a celebration, a paean to resolve, but also an outraged and highly personal cry again

• Language: English
• Publisher: Universal Truth Publisher
• Release date: Sep 25, 2023
• ISBN: 9798988785200

Book preview

Front Cover

Mothers Lead

Jenny Athena Wong

Mothers Lead

Jenny Athena Wong

A Memoir

A Modern Woman

A Mission

The Journey of a Girl to Motherhood

The Power of Women to Advance Evolution

The Mission to Empower Women

Who Will In Turn

Elevate All

HORSEPOWER

A Mother Is A Brave Workhorse

Stronger Than All Men

Men Have Room For Improvement

Ladies and Gentlemen

You Are Perfect

I don't mean to be a bummer

If I am to tell a story about Life

It must start as a seed

Don't worry

It gets Happier

Simple Duty

I don't know much about my family history

Other than what my Mother tells me

I am told that my Grandfather was a Doctor

Trained in Chinese and Western Medicine

A Boy was gravely ill

My Grandfather saved him

The grateful Mother felt she owed her son's Life to him

She asked him to accept the boy as a godson

The boy would honor him as his own Father

Grandfather courteously declined

He simply fulfilled his daily duty

She begged relentlessly

He did not expect gains from the relationship

If it appeased the insistent mother

He accepted

Gossamer Veil

Communist Pretense

One night

Communists stormed the house

Looted Everything.

Money, furniture, clothes

Food.

Everything.

common thieves thinly veiled as revolutionaries

Overnight

My Mother was the

Daughter of a wealthy prestigious Family

Cast down to the very pit bottom of the new social order

Intellectuals attacked as

Bourgeois enemies of the Regime

Grandfather was a practicing Christian

Another Communist stone of sin

Subject to Violence, Humiliation and Abject Poverty

Punished for Saving Lives

Persecuted for Faith in Humanity

I have read accounts of the social climate and the

Communists’ rationale for revolution

I cannot condone it

How do Tyrants seize power?

RATIONALIZATION

To Destroy

Thousands of Years of Knowledge

Is Just Pure Bigotry

a toddler

throwing a tantrum

Life Begets Life

The young boy saved was now a

Young man working overseas

He sent as much money as

He could home to Grandfather

He Saved Our Family

He helped my uncle find work in America

After my uncle obtained Citizenship

He sponsored our Family for Immigration

Precious Sprout

At the Very Beginning of Life

I Escaped Death Twice

My grandmother had three daughters

Only one son

She felt a failure to ancestral duties if a

Male heir could not be produced to

Carry the family line

After my sister was born

They risked for a second child

Late into her pregnancy

Such that it was impossible to conceal

Mom stayed hidden

We Were Betrayed

A Guard Found My Mother

"You are in Violation of the One Child Policy

I am here for Standard Operating Procedures

Extraction and Tubal Ligation"

Mom begged.

"We will be immigrating to America

We are only waiting for our turn

We will all be gone soon

I will stay hidden

I will send the child away

I promise not to have more children

PLEASE

You can report you fulfilled your duty"

Mom was always Kind and Generous to Everyone

Well-liked in the Community

The Guard was Merciful

Once born

I was smuggled away as evidence of a crime

But Mom could not bear to be without her Child

Her Daughter

She wanted me home

To Register an Illegal Life as one of

Permitted Statutory Existence

They paid a very heavy fine

Three times the