I wanted to share some pictures of my brother’s graduation. He received his Masters in Infectous Disease Control from Emory University on Monday, May 12th, 2008. We are so very proud of him! He has worked extremely hard and is so very deserving of ALL BRAGGING - BRAG - BRAG - BRAG - BRAG - BRAG. lol He is soooo smart and handsome and works so hard and he’s so cute, don’t you think? Oh and did I tell you how smart he is? j/k. But he IS all of those things. lol.

How can one woman affect the lives of so many and raise 6 successful children? My mother taught me the secret to raising your children successfully. Give them a secure life:

Love them
Talk to them
Listen to them
but above all else - ADVOCATE for them.

Be quick to tell them when they are doing wrong and guide them in another direction, and fight for them when they are doing what’s right!

One thing none of us ever doubted, was if our mother would fight for us. We may not have always been right, but she gave us a security alot of children just don’t have.

My mother raised six children. The first five before Brandon came along. We have all been more successful than many of our friends. Do you see the picture in the upper left corner? That is Brandon’s birthday party at my house in 1993. The girl was his best friend. She became an unwed mother. The boy, Randy, was our nephew. A few years later, at the age of 10, he would be killed when his cousin shot him with a rifle at his father’s house. He did not want to go to his father’s house that summer, but because of divorce custody agreements, he was forced to go - he came back in a coffin. I only know of three friends who grew up to be successful. Over a dozen or more ended up unwed parents, drug abusers, alchoholics, etc. And that was from a middle class neighborhood of the 70’s. I am not saying we we’re perfect. Far from it. We did the usual bad teenage stuff, tested our limits, but my mother was always there to help us and set us straight, even when it took years. Sometimes hormones just take awhile to mellow out in some more than others. lol

When my mother started out with my real father she did not know he was a drug addict, alchoholic and wife abuser. They lived in the projects of Baltimore. She had five children by him, one severely retarded, my sister, Pooh. After he died (thank God!) my mother met and married my step-father. My step-father was not always demonstratively loving, but he was steady and took good care of us. He came home every night, paid the bills on time and I only got a spanking once (well-deserved!). They taught us to take pride in ourselves and to work hard if we wanted something bad enough. We were not rich, always slipping and sliding from poverty level to middle class, but my parents worked hard. My mother is still working full-time as a PBX Operator for the switchboard of a local hospital. They did all of this, working full-time, caring for Pooh Bear (who is almost 50), keeping a clean house and clean kids, and still had the time to listen to us. I’m sure my mother would have loved to have seen all of us graduate from college, but I know that she is satisfied that she has done her job well and now all of her children can live good, safe and happy lives.

So, Mom, if you’re listening now, you can retire….. It’s okay, there’s nothing else we need that you did not provide for. Brandon’s job at the CDC will pay his student loans now. lol

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