By Frances Bryce, June 18, 2020 — The COVID-19 virus has us now on Zoom instead of in a classroom with many other Best Day writers in the Senior Center. The good news is technology allows the class to continue. During this period at home, I have spent several hours looking at photo albums. I began thinking about my childhood with my siblings and the influence we had on each other.
[I also thought about our] early education and the influence the teacher had that encouraged us, and especially me, to do my best. After high school, I went to college to continue the process that began earlier. One brother also had finished a stint in the service and was a pharmacist, but I learned that he really wanted to be a medical doctor. He helped me financially as well as my oldest brother, who had stated that our education was the answer to opportunities from the segregated South with limited future achievements and a poor outcome. To put the plan in action, we had what is now called “pass it forward” as each one was in a position to help the next one in line, and this is how we managed that everyone went to school or to do something that they really wanted to do. This worked for our family and each of us succeeded in achieving an independent lifestyle. I followed my brother who became a pharmacist. I majored in chemistry and math and became a research assistant and then other opportunities to learn and participated in other unrelated activities.One of the ones I enjoyed most was as a parent educator who was sort of a coach for parents with kids from 0 to 5 years old, and we reminded them how important their role was because the parent is the child’s first teacher. And English second was the thing that I liked and reading most. Donating as an alumnus and to selected charities was my effort to pass it forward.