Ashley Riley was a woman who knew what she liked and she prefered her men Black. Ashley’s choice in romantic partners was not something that happened overnight, but developed over the course of her life as she matured from a child into a young woman. Ashley didn’t run into the arms of Black men, but she was pushed through rejection from those of her own kind.

Ashley rose from a child living in a rundown mobile home in a field to her new life looking out over downtown Dallas from a window in her high rise condominium. Facing rejection as a child from those deeming her to be unworthy of their friendship because they considered her to be White trash, Ashley found acceptance from a Black classmate who became her best friend. Ashley assimilated into the African American culture and eventually fell into relationships with Black men, but all did not go smoothly.

Given the racial attitudes prevalent in the area she grew up in, Ashley kept her associations with her Black friends a secret, even from her parents, until she meet James Thomas in college. James was Ashley’s first true love and the first Black man she introduced to her parents, but after college they parted ways. Fate and circumstances would bring them together years later after heartbreak and they didn’t waste a second chance at love. Love, marriage and a child followed.

In the midst of the most blissful period of their lives an unimaginable tragedy struck like a bolt of lightning that changed their world forever.