Maya Angelou: Mother's Day Tribute To Her Mother, Vivian Baxter, Talks About Their Relationship in Her New Book, 'Mom & Me & Mom'

Maya Angelou, 85, explained the relationship that she had with her mother in light of Mother's Day and her new book, 'Mom & Me &Mom.'

Angelou's new book was released at the beginning of April and is documents the deepest personal story of her life, which is the relationship that she had with her mother, according to Amazon.

"My mother was irresistible," Angelou said according to the Journal Gazette.  '"Irresistible," is a word that many fans have applied to Angelou herself as well, after reading her various writings, poems, autobiographies and plays or watching her performances.  Her most famous work is called, 'I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings,' which is an account of her experiences after being a rape victim as a child.

Angelou did not always have a wonderful relationship with her mother, the Journal Gazette reports.  As a young child she, and her brother Bailey, were sent to live with their grandmother because their mother found herself stuck in a miserable marriage and unsuited to care for the children.  As children, they harbored a profound resentment toward her, however, Angelou was able to learn to forgive her mother as she got older.

"I think that it's one of the most important of the gifts you can give to the human race - is to forgive people. And mind you, what you do, of course, is you liberate your own self - you liberate yourself from carrying that weight around. So that when you say, "I forgive you," it's a giant gift," Angelou said in an interview with the Huffington Post.  "I never had that feeling that I had to carry the weight of somebody's ignorance around with me. And that was true for racists who wanted to use the 'n' word when talking about me or about my people, or the stupidity of people who really wanted to belittle other folks because they weren't pretty or they weren't rich or they weren't clever. I never had that feeling that I had to carry that around - that was somebody else's problem not mine. And a part of that, of course, I learned from [my mother,] Vivian Baxter."

When Angelou was 13 her mother summoned them from their grandmother's house in Arkansas and they returned to live with her and her new husband in San Francisco, the Journal Gazette reports.  From there, Vivian Baxter became a huge influence in Angelou's life.

"I learned that my mother was always on my side. And that really liberated me," Angelou told the Huffington Post.  "In many ways I became unafraid because of Vivian Baxter. I realized that she really was an incredible supporter, an incredible love and support, and I don't think that you could have anybody stronger."

Her mother helped her to learn lessons throughout her life by being supportive and down-to-earth.  "She told me when I was pregnant at 16, and she asked me, 'Do you know who the father was?' I said, 'Yes.'  I had only had sex once. And she asked, 'Do you love him?' I said, 'No.' She asked, 'Does he love you?' I said, 'No.' She said, 'In that case, we're not going to ruin three lives. We're going to have a wonderful baby,'" Angelou told the Huffington Post.  "And she never once made me feel I had brought shame on the family or I had done a terrible thing. And she loved my son. Which of course liberated me a lot too."

Other people in her life were also very supportive of her and helped shape who she is today.  "It was important for me, to not only to have them, but I also became a kind of supportive person around other people. I became the kind of parent, my mother was to me. I was on my son's side," she told the Huffington Post.

Angelou told the Post that she was shaped by the people who are close to her and was able to find meaning in her life.  "Well, I have a feeling that I make a very good friend, and I'm a good mother, and a good sister, and a good citizen. I am involved in life itself - all of it. And I have a lot of energy and a lot of nerve," she said.  "And I find that I make friends with women who are very much like me. They may be black or white or Asian or Spanish speaking, they may be young or old or pretty or plain, but if they also have a sense of good humor and pizzazz, and dare to think that this is their life, and they can take some chances with it - then it's very likely that we'll make friends. And over time we'll talk about matters of pith and moment."

Angelou also gave some advice on how to approach parenting.  "Parents can be on the side of their children. Please - be their supporters, be their protectors and let them know that," she told the Huffington Post. "That doesn't mean that you indulge and condone mismanagement and bad action - but you can say, 'I'm on your side. Now, this is not acceptable. And the reason it's not acceptable is that you might get hurt in the management of the interaction. But I'm on your side - I want you to do well. I love you. That doesn't mean I indulge you - I have sentimentality and it means I really love you and I want you to live a good life.'"