Shirley Smith was one of the most remarkable New Zealanders of the 20th century, a woman whose lifelong commitment to social justice, legal reform, gender equality and community service left a profound legacy. She was born in Wellington in 1916. While her childhood was clouded by loss &– her mother died when she was three months old and her beloved father, lawyer and later Supreme Court Judge David Smith, served overseas during the war &– she had a privileged upbringing. She studied classics at Oxford University, where she threw herself into social, cultural and political activities. Despite contracting TB and spending months in a Swiss clinic, she graduated with a good Second and an intellectual and moral education that would guide her through the rest of her life. She returned to New Zealand when war broke out, and taught classics at Victoria and Auckland University Colleges, before marrying eminent economist and public servant Dr W.B. Sutch in 1944, and giving birth to a daughter in 1945. She kept her surname &– unusual at the time &– and poured her energy into issues of human rights and social causes. She qualified as a lawyer at the age of 40, and in her career of 40 years broke down many barriers, her relationship with the Mongrel Mob epitomising her role as a champion of the marginalised and vulnerable. In 1974, Bill Sutch was arrested and charged with espionage. After a sensational trial he was acquitted by a jury, but the question of his guilt has never been settled in the court of public opinion. Shirley had reached her own political turning point in 1956, with Khrushchev's revelations about Stalin and the Hungarian crisis, but she remained loyal to her husband, and the ongoing controversy weighed on her later years. Shirley Smith: An Examined Life tells the story of a remarkably warm and generous woman, one with a rare gift for frankness, an implacable sense of principle, and a personality of complexity and formidable energy. Her life was shaped by some of th

This book is a special dedication to all humanity in hopes that it will bring encouragement, enlighten the minds of the reader to a broader outlook on God’s holy Word, and open a door of great enchantment to know that God is always with us. In God, there is a new way of living, a new way of giving. Be encouraged and be blessed, God’s beloved, and remember, God has us all in his mighty hands.

“Brave. Compelling. Provocative. ” —Gabrielle Union Wade, actress and New York Times bestselling author In this moving memoir, Shirley Smith, wife of NBA Champion and All-Star J. R. Smith, tells the story of giving birth to one of the youngest premature babies to survive—using her experience to heighten awareness of the crisis of Black maternal and infant health and pay tribute to Black women’s resilience. Shirley Smith and her husband, NBA champion J. R. Smith, looked forward to the birth of their second child, Dakota, as they celebrated New Year’s Eve with family at home. After dinner, Shirley felt a sharp pain that worsened through the night. Only 21-weeks pregnant, she was in labor. Mama Bear is the story of her 141-day ordeal, from entering a hospital emergency room on New Year’s morning and giving birth to her premature newborn, to taking her daughter home for the first time the following May. In telling her story, written with Zelda Lockhart, Shirley shines a spotlight on the dangers Black women face during pregnancy. Black mothers are twice as likely as their white counterparts to go into labor prematurely and lose their babies—and almost four times as likely to die giving birth. Neither socioeconomic status nor access to quality healthcare seem to matter. Tennis champion Serena Williams experienced life-threatening complications during childbirth, and Beyoncé suffered toxemia with her premature twins. Shirley chronicles the emotional and physical battle she and J. R. endured to save their daughter, and her continual struggles to support her family while nurturing herself. Like many Black women, Shirley was raised to believe that pain is a sign of weakness. The one who kept it together for everybody, she had always put herself second. She parallels this difficult journey to her childhood growing up with an addict mother, and having to raise herself and her brother from a very young age. A chronicle of pain, loss, and infidelity, Mama Bear is ultimately a story of love—a celebration of community, family, faith, healing, the maternal bond, and one woman’s indomitable spirit.

She was never a violent person, never abused her children. She never committed an act of any kind that those close to her could point to later as an omen of the killing of her children. She loved them dearly. They were her life. But she sent three-year-old Michael and fourteen-month-old Alex to their deaths in John D. Long Lake on a dark October night more than five years ago.