NONFICTION - Dec. 12, 1993

HAVING OUR SAY: The Delany Sisters’ First 100 Years by Sarah and A. Elizabeth Delany, with Amy Hill Hearth (Kodansha: $20; 210 pp.) . “Turning 100 was the worst birthday of my life . . . ,” says Bessie Delany. “Turning 101 was not so bad. Once you’re past that century mark it’s just not as shocking.”

“Having Our Say,” the dual memoirs of Bessie, aged 101 and her sister Sadie Delany who’s 103, gives us a valuable opportunity to see life through the eyes of women who actually knew freed slaves (their father was one) and have clear memories of Harlem in the ‘20s. But the memoirs, expertly complied by Amy Hill Hearth, are not just a history lesson. Bessie and Sadie Delany give themselves so completely to the reader it’s as if you’re in the home of these intelligent, humorous women listening to them talk over dinner.

“Well, here I am an old maid,” Sadie tells us. “Oops, I shouldn’t say, ‘old maid,’ ‘cause it makes Bessie mad. Bessie says we’re, ‘maiden ladies.’ . . . I have no regrets about it. . . . I’ve had a good life, child.”

The Delany sisters have received fan mail from all over the country, and it’s easy to see why. Their decency and continued independence is a source of comfort. The elderly, especially women, often get ignored in this country, and as a result many people are hungry for something they can’t quite place. They crave wisdom. They crave memory. They crave Sadie and Bessie Delany.