World-renowned poet, author and activist Maya Angelou is dead. She died at age 85, two months after cekebrating her 85 birthday. Maya has written extensively about her life, starting with I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings in 1969. More than 40 years later, she opened up about one of the most important and complex relationships in her life: her relationship with her mother, Vivian Baxter.

When Angelou was three years old, Baxter sent her and her brother away to be raised by their grandmother in Stamps, Arkansas. When Angelou returned to live with Baxter 10 years later, she refused to call her her mother, referring to her only as "Lady".


Angelou's seventh autobiography, Mom & Me & Mom, chronicles how Lady eventually became Mom. It was a long journey with many bumps along the way, but as Angelou tells Michael Maher, it is a story of the healing power of love.