No Blood in the Turnip: Memoirs of a Codependent

No Blood in the Turnip gives the reader insights of codependency and what it does to the family structure. The story is an eye-opener especially for the African American community. Maple found many that have never heard the word “codependent.” Her story is a mirror for so many. It exposes the cycle of destructive home environments that leads to bad choices which can eventually lead to incarceration. The prisons are overcrowded with young black men mostly because they are products of dysfunctional home environments. This story shows how the cycle of negative behaviors passes from one generation to the next. It tells how Maple failed her two sons by exposing them to an unhealthy home environment by staying in a destructive marriage for twenty-three years.


Maple realizes that she can’t change the past, but hopes that telling her story will help others realize that our children learn by our examples. The title No Blood in the Turnip came from an old adage passed on by Maple’s grandmother. It is a derivative of “You can’t get blood from a turnip.”