When my novel, ‘Pathways’ begins, we find our heroine, Angie Turner, employed full-time at a Bargain Store in her hometown of Paterson, New Jersey and attending the local community college. Angie is the best employee at work, the best student at her college and the stalwart support to her friends and wayward parents, a White mother and a Black father, although she rarely departs from her modest demeanor, despite her obvious exceptional abilities. Angie meets a recent Pakistani immigrant, falls in love, becomes pregnant and loses the father of her child when immigration officers remove him from the country, because of a flaw in his visa application. The daughter Angie gives birth to is stricken with a rare congenital neurological disorder, but neither this devastating setback, nor the difficulty of raising and supporting a disabled child as a single parent can prevent Angie from succeeding brilliantly through college, law school, and eventually, a career as a New York attorney.