How does one woman transform the lives of generations?
Living in Pearl Coke’s Residence
is a powerful cultural heritage biography that honors the legacy of Pearl Coke—a resilient Jamaican matriarch who raised eleven children and nurtured thirty-three grandchildren with unwavering strength, faith, and sacrifice. From her humble beginnings in rural Jamaica to her triumphant migration to the United States, Pearl’s story is a deeply personal portrait of generational perseverance and the lasting impact of a single life.
Told by her granddaughter Tanya M. Thomas, this multigenerational family memoir captures Pearl’s struggles through poverty, widowhood, and societal judgment. In the face of these hardships, she responded not with retreat, but with resilience. Despite receiving minimal formal education, Pearl became an “uneducated educator” who instilled the importance of schooling, spiritual grounding, and unity within her household. She worked as a higgler, purchased land, and built a home where education was law and family was sacred.
Her journey is marked by faith, community service, land ownership, and transnational migration. It serves as an enduring testament to cultural identity, Black family history, and the strength of matriarchal legacy. With vivid storytelling and emotional clarity, this biography offers readers not just a life story, but also a roadmap for how love, grit, and purpose can build lasting generational change.
If you are searching for inspiring biographies of strong women, immigrant stories rich in cultural tradition, or real-life accounts of perseverance and spiritual leadership,
belongs on your shelf.
Discover the woman who turned trials into triumph and shaped a lineage of leaders.