How My Illiterate Grandmother Raised An Educated Black Man
Friday, January 20, 2012 at 1:45PM
I got a chance to meet Terrell Jermaine Starr a few years ago. I was the communications director for a national organization (early 2000s) and he joined us as an intern. Very bright, focused and interesting young man. He made an impression on me. After he left, he made it his business to stay in touch with me throughout the years.
In fact, he was the one who convinced me, reluctantly, to join Facebook a few years ago. I was too busy on Myspace and didn't want to be overwhelmed with another social media site geared towards college students. He was my first Facebook friend. Now I have nearly 8,000 friends and fans. Thanks Terrell!!!
Anyway, periodically, he would send me Facebook messages and postcards from Russia where he lived and studied for a while. He'd try to convince me, "there are some Black people here." Finally, he sent a few pics and I didn't tease him about how LONG it took for him to find these two ladies. LOL
He enjoyed his time there but was eager to get home and start his journalism career. Well, he's currently a journalist at NewsOne.com where he wrote a wonderful testimony to his grandmother which helps me understand just how he BECAME the great man he is BECOMING. And, no, that's not a typo. (smile).
Terrell starts off saying:
From as early as 10 years old, I awoke to my grandmother tapping the ceiling directly underneath my bed with a wooden broomstick at 7 o’clock each morning during the school week. I rolled from underneath my covers, bathed, then made my way downstairs to the kitchen, where she would have a bowl of grits, a side of bacon, and a glass of orange juice ready for me on our kitchen countertop.
Ever-watching the clock, she would make sure I finished breakfast in time to be out of the house at half-past seven, so I would make it to school on time. Before I left, my grandmother would often ask me if I had completed any homework assignments teachers had given the day before. I was good student, so I almost always said, yes. But even if I didn’t do my homework, she would have no way of knowing.
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