Publisher's Synopsis
Born in rural Eastern North Carolina of parents near poverty, Chris begins his story of his "early years" and about the love so deeply shared between his "Mama" and himself. As the first child of a family that would eventually grow to five, Chris remembers the early years when he didn't have to share his mother's love with other siblings. Time alone with his mother was all that mattered, and she, likewise, expressed what mattered to her: "On a beautiful day the sixth of June, nineteen years ago, a beautiful baby came to brighten our home and oh! How we loved him so."
Once his baby sister was born into the family, Chris' jealousness of his mother's love for the newborn forced him to look elsewhere to find a repository for his love. He found it next door at his Grandma's. Chris worshiped his Grandma Pittman and she gave that love and attention back to him until Chris had to deal with his first lost of love to death. Chris continues his story into adolescence dreaming of escaping his rural world defined by cornfields, vegetable gardens and his mama's religion, a world that was warm, secure and safe, yet confining, confusing and suffocating. During these young years, he confronts his dad's addiction to prescription drugs and his perceived need to take on the heavy responsibility as head of the family. Adding to the uncertainty and confusion already surrounding him, he was startled to realize he was attracted to men, a state he intuitively knew would not please his mama's God and one he would wrestle with for five lonely years. As a young man in college, Chris hungrily reached out for life to experience all that he had missed in his early years having come from a fundamental religious background that denied him so much of life, as he saw it. In his excitement for life, Chris had no time to finish college so he dropped out after one and one-half years with the idea he would finish school later. With just enough of a taste of life "outside the church," Chris knew he could no longer live at home in the rural setting in which he was born. Chris met his first life partner and experienced his first love. It was this relationship that provided him the escape from his hometown, an escape that allowed him to hide his "secret" life from family. As poor as they were, their love was unfaltering and they made their way together for almost twelve years. Not able to settle their differences, Chris and his partner separated in what turned out to be a most unsettling emotional journey. It was during this period of time Chris met his second life partner, a story of love and passion that lives on after thirty years today. Chris finished his education and obtained a Bachelor of Science degree in Applied Behavioral Science from National Lewis University in Evanston, Illinois. In addition, he enjoyed a successful career with the U.S. Department of Education, affording him the opportunity to work with and learn from very prominent high-ranking political figures. Loosing his Grandma, Daddy, first life partner, younger brother, and Mama in death, Chris' view of death and the loss of love therein saddened him. The sadness these deaths brought to him, coupled with his obsession to live forever, led him to tell his journey of happiness, love, laughter, grief and sorrow in A Moment in Time.
