How long can you live a lie?
Caribbean Life, OCTOBER 22-28, 2021 31
By Terri Schlichenmeyer
Not a whisper.
Don’t breathe one word of
what you’re about to hear, not
to anyone living or dead. This
is Top Secret information, for
your eyes only. Keep it quiet.
And in the new book “The
Redemption of Bobby Love” by
Bobby and Cheryl Love with
Lori L. Tharps, hope that everyone
else does so, too.
At that time of day, a rap on
the door was never good.
It was 6:30 a.m. and Cheryl
Love was just finishing up her
morning routine, preparing to
wake her husband, Bobby, for
work, and their son for school.
She looked through the
door’s peephole and saw several
policemen...
Walter Curtis Miller was
born in the fall of 1950 in
North Carolina, his mother’s
“lucky number seven” of eight
children. The family was poor
but young “Buddy” had a good
childhood until his father died
in 1959 and that changed everything:
his mother took any
job she could to feed her brood
and with little supervision,
Buddy started acting out, fighting,
stealing.
By 12, his light-fingered
habit turned into major theft
and taking cars.
At fifteen, he was sent to a
“Training School” from which
he walked away and headed
to Washington DC, where he
couldn’t stop stealing; caught
again, he was sent to a facility
for juvenile offenders. Shortly
after his release from there at
age 17, he robbed a bank and
that was it.
Miller went to prison with a
25-year sentence.
But Buddy Miller couldn’t do
that kind of time and he made
plans to run when he could.
He jumped off the prison bus,
changed his name to Bobby
Love because it was the first
thing that came to mind, and
he sneaked off to New York.
As Love, he kept mum about
his past, settled down, got a
job, fell in love and married,
volunteered in his community,
helped folks, and raised four
good kids. His family never
knew about Buddy Miller.
Until forty-some years after
Miller’s “one big heist,” and
there was a rap on the door…
Seems like a movie plot,
right? Like you’d catch this on
your big-screen with some popcorn,
but no, “The Redemption
of Bobby Love” is a true story
and it’s incredible.
Part of that is because half
of this book belongs to author
Cheryl Love, whose tale accompanies
Bobby Love’s in all its
tumultuousness. Together,
they make a breathless story,
told with no apparent desire
to keep it all under wraps anymore
– and that’ll knock the
breath out of you, too. It has
a Catch Me If You Can feel, as
you race through this account
with an empathetic feeling of
doom, the urgency of being
one step ahead, and the terror
of waiting for that hand
on your shoulder. Whew, the
grace that eventually comes is
sweet relief.
Fans of Humans of New York
will recognize this tale, and be
glad it’s finally fully told. Anyone
who wants a good book
needs to read “The Redemption
of Bobby Love.” Truly, it’ll
make you shout.
“The Redemption of
Bobby Love” by Bobby and
Cheryl Love with Lori L.
Tharps
c.2021, Mariner Books /
HMH Books
$28.00
288 pages
Book cover of “The Redemption of Bobby Love” by Bobby and Cheryl Love with Lori L.
Tharps.
‘Paintings in the Garden III’ art show
By Nelson A. King
Prominent Trinidadian artist
Alicia Aberdeen-Jones will on
Saturday, Oct. 23, host the third
installment of her annual art
show and fundraiser, “Paintings
in the Garden III — Rhythm
& Harmony in Color, Media and
Culture.”
Aberdeen-Jones told Caribbean
Life that the event will be
held in Clinton Hill, Brooklyn,
from 4:00 pm to 8:00 pm.
In collaboration with internationally
renowned calypsonian,
Trinidadian David Rudder, she
said the show will donate computers
to the computer lab of St.
Francis Boys’ College (formerly
Belmont Boys’ RC Secondary
School) in Trinidad and Tobago,
Rudder’s alma mater.
Aberdeen-Jones said Trinidad
and Tobago 1964 Tokyo Olympic
medalists, Edwin Roberts and
Kent Bernard (recently honored
by the Trinidad and Tobago Consulate
and the 56ers Cultural
Legacy Committee, of which
Aberdeen-Jones is a founding
member), will also donate to the
cause.
She said a ceremonial check
presentation by the Consul General
of Trinidad and Tobago,
J. André Laveau and Joyce E.
Stroud (niece of the legendary
Nina Simone) will announce
these contributions.
56ers Cultural Legacy Committee commemorative event
for T&T’s 1964 Olympic Mens 4 x 400M Relay Team, Aug
6, 2021. From left: Trevor Millet, Gail Lowe, Alicia Aberdeen-
Jones, Kent Bernard, Colin Williams, Edwin Roberts, Consul
General of T&;T NYC J. AndrÐ Laveau and Shaka Hislop.
Courtesy Alicia Aberdeen-Jones