The business grew slow at first, then faster. By 2000, I had twelve employees. By 2010, we were the go-to firm for midsize Atlanta companies trying to reach Black consumers without looking ridiculous. By 2020, I had offices in three cities and a client list that made competitors sweat.
But nobody tells you what empire-building costs a single mother. Every brick you lay at work is a brick you don’t lay at home.
I missed Terry’s school plays—not all of them, but enough that he stopped asking if I was coming. Missed his sixteenth birthday because a client in Charlotte “needed me.” Missed his college graduation because my flight got delayed, and by the time I got there, they’d already called his name. I made it to the reception with a Rolex he never wore and told myself we’d make it up later.
We never did.
There’s one memory I kept like a life raft: Christmas 1993, Terry was seven. Money was tight—rice-and-beans-four-nights-a-week tight. Payroll was due in January, and I couldn’t justify a $300 Power Rangers Megazord. So I made him a teddy bear. Stayed up three nights sewing fabric scraps, stuffed it with old pillow filling, gave it button eyes and a crooked smile.
Christmas morning he tore open the paper, and instead of disappointment he hugged that bear so hard I thought he’d pop the seams.
“Mama,” he whispered, “you made this just for me.”
“Just for you, baby,” I told him. “This is special.”
He slept with that bear until he was twelve. Took it to college. Said it reminded him of when we were a team.
I don’t know when he stopped being that boy. Or maybe—and this is what keeps me up at night—I was too busy building my empire to notice when he changed.w
Because if you blink at the wrong time, love can turn into leverage. That was the second hinge.
Let me tell you about Terrence Anthony Moore as he is now, not as he was. He’s thirty-eight and runs a graphic design company called TH Creative Studios. That sounds more successful than it is, and I say that because I bailed him out twice: $35,000 the first time when his biggest client went bankrupt, $28,000 the second time when his partner stole half the equipment. Both times he promised he’d pay me back. Both times he said, “Mama, this is temporary. You know I’m good for it.”
I never saw a dime.
