When I graduated from high school, like most graduates, I received many gifts from family and friends but there was one gift that stands out among the rest.
My great-aunt Mae, like her brother, my maternal grandfather, was Appalachian born in the southwest corner of Virginia. He came to first Kansas, then to Missouri as a young man but Aunt Mae’s family ended up in Ohio. Many folks from Appalachia went elsewhere to make a living. Some returned home, some didn’t. My grandfather wanted to but died before he could.
Aunt Mae sent me a pretty graduation card but it had one difference from all the rest – she had sewn a $5 bill to it. She was never a wealthy woman and lived a frugal life by necessity. For her, five dollars was a large enough sum that it may well have affected her budget for that week or month. But the money alone wasn’t the most memorable thing about the card – it was what she wrote inside it.
“Get all the education you can,” she wrote. “It’s something no one can ever take away from you.”
Those profound words made a deep impression on my 17-year-old self. They spoke volumes because my great-aunt, like her brother, had an 8th grade education. In fact, of my grandparents, only my maternal grandmother finished high school. She had plans to go on to college, to MU, but the Great Depression destroyed those dreams when her father lost all the money he had in the bank, his business, and their home.
I was already enrolled at Crowder College prior to graduation and I had a work/study job for the summer. I had, however, had some qualms about whether or not I should go to college. My generation was the first to go to college with a very few exceptions. One of Aunt Mae’s sisters, Aunt Orpha, had gone to college thanks to a New Deal program and became a teacher. One of my dad’s cousins had gone to college in the 1940’s and became a G-man, working for the FBI. But other than that, my generation was the first with some who went to college.
Granny had already made me promise that I wouldn’t get married until I finished my education and if I went to college, that included it. Her theory was that if I married, I wouldn’t focus on finishing my education and it was a sound one.
My great-aunt’s words resonated with me and still do. A woman born in Appalachia, who raised a family and had a husband that worked two jobs as long as I could remember, knew that education held a vital key. I haven’t become rich thanks to my education but I gained knowledge that has been invaluable throughout my life.
As a small child, I visited Aunt Mae in her humble, small home that lay in the center of cornfields in Ohio. I ran through those fields with some of my cousins and ate a simple “poor folks” treat called “sugar bread”. I met my great-grandmother there as well, a woman I have never forgotten, whose children called her Mammy growing up. I called her Grandmammy and by the time I met her, Aunt Mae called her Mother.
Education gave me a boost toward becoming a writer and I value it. In this season of graduations for both high school and college students, Aunt Mae’s advice rings loud and true still.
Get all the education you can – it’s something no one can ever take away from you.
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