after his grandmother died, hughes and his mother moved about 12 times until settling in cleveland, and then, as a teenager went to live in lincoln, illinois with his mother, who had remarried. he was often left alone because his mother was at work. even though his childhood was difficult and had lots of changes, he was able to use these things in the poetry that he started to write while he was at school. he never forgot the stories of his grandmother and tried to help other african-americans when they were having problems. these were the people that he later wrote about in his own stories.