The Book of Lost Friends

The three blue beads that Hannie’s mother gives her when she is only six at the wrenching moment when the two are to be separated in the slave trading yards in Texas symbolize both the integrity and the importance of Hannie’s African identity and as well the promise of family in the face of unspeakable cruelty and separation.

When her mother, trying hard not to show her emotion, calmly gives each of her children three beads brought with her from Africa, she assures them, “This is the sign of your people” (11). The intense blue colored stones are striking, much different in color and shape from the gravel rocks strewn about the Texas auction grounds. They stand out and, in turn, remind Hannie that she and her people are not of the American South.

The mother promises that whatever happens to her children, no matter how widely they are dispersed, the beads will always signal who they are and will eventually bring them back together, guide them like the North Star. Hannie clings to the three beads for more than ten years. They calm her when she most misses her mother, most yearns for her lost family. The beads reassure her not to give up hope.