The Setting for Writing "The Pearl Song"

My name, Susan Pearl, has great meaning to me.  My Dad had chosen that name even before the birth of his and Mother's first child.  After having four sons, Dad still hung on to that name.  I am the fifth and youngest child in the family and Dad got to name me Susan Pearl.  My Dad died in a car accident when I was one year old and so I did not get to know him.  But I heard the story of how he wanted his "Susan Pearl".

As time went on I was raised by my widowed mother and grew up in a single parent setting.  This was back in the 1950's and 1960's, and I was the only one in my small rural community class who did not have a dad and that is something I really missed.

When I was in my forties, I came across an explanation of the pearl.  This explanation revealed to me that a pearl is made from a self defense device of the oyster.  To stop the irritation of a grain of sand inside the oyster, a mother of pearl substance is formed to coat the grain of sand and thus the once irritation becomes a rare beauty of a gem, a one of a kind, a beautiful pearl.  I knew then the true meaning of my name.