I have been grateful for the influence of my grandmother and my grandfather in my life. I remember my grandmother as a queenly woman. My father could be stern, and my grandparents would remind him that we were just boys.
I had a very strong-willed mother, who I totally adored. She was always in control of her life.
My mom, she was unbelievable. She ran the whole town. She was like the mayor. There would be 15 people eating at our lunch table. She'd drag people from the street.
I'm from a single-parent family. My mom is like my mom and dad. She's my world.
My maternal grandmother, a.k.a. Nanny, wasn't much of a cook. As a kid I remember her making only a handful of things, mostly dishes with Ashkenazi Jewish origins like kasha and bowties (which, for the record, only my dad liked).
Is there a grandmother that isn't spunky on television? Is there such a creature?
In my world, a woman was the most powerful thing that I knew. Still is. A woman made the money in my house; a woman made my food. A woman beat my ass when I wasn't a good kid. Women were behind a lot of what spurred South Africa toward democracy.
People have really taken Mrs. Brown to their hearts. I think she reminds them of their own mammies... Fierce and scary but full of love.
When you think of the warm grandmotherly type of character, you don't think of Elaine Stritch.
My parents worked hard. My mother, Wilhelmina, was a very strong woman. She had to be with 12 kids. She would do anything for the family. She was a light, the glue in the family.
All I want to do really is get married and be a matriarch.
My mother really held the family together. She was a perfect example of the kind of black woman I would love to see again. She ruled my father with an iron hand, yet she barely ever raised her voice above a whisper.
My mother was a strong-willed and opinionated woman - a Sicilian! - and if she didn't like something, she'd let you know about it. So her undying support of her kids went a long way in proving to us that we were on the right path.
My grandmother was a huge influence on me and the fact that there was this very strong, rather formidable presence of women in my life has been an enormous value.
My mother was the strength. She was the anchor. She was a preacher and a teacher.
Madea is a cross between my mother and my aunt. She's the type of grandmother that was on every corner when I was growing up.
My grandmother was the matriarch. I was the youngest of all the men in my family, so I kind of used them as examples and kind of emulated what I saw them do. So I didn't have to deal with a lot of bullying because we had a lot of back-up, so to speak.
One of the first major storylines that 'All My Children' featured was Erica Kane, a rebellious daughter, and her mother, sort of a matriarchal type, who was trying to guide her daughter to a safer place.
When I met Rachel Robinson for the first time, she is a regal woman, and she was like a grandmother in that first meeting.
I was very close to my grandmother, Agnes Parry. She was a typical matriarchal leader of the family and the community. People looked up to her and would always go to her for advice and help.
