Mom's Belated College Days

My mom was an Ohio girl, born and raised. 

After working for some years out of high school, something remarkable happened. 

Someone- out of the blue- anonymously gave her a scholarship for college!

I'm not quite sure if this scholarship could be used for any college, or just for Bryan College, but I'm thinking it was the latter. In any case, my mom, at the ripe old age of 24, who had been living with her mother working various jobs, decided to take the scholarship and leave everything she knew behind to enroll in Willian Jennings Bryan College down south in the little town of Dayton, Tennessee. 

Her younger sister had gone to college right out of high school. Money was tight, so I'm not sure how she did that, unless it was through a scholarship that perhaps she had somehow earned. 

Back when Mom was in high school, her parents' marriage, which had been wrought with several separations, finally ended in divorce when she 16. Despite the ongoing marriage difficulties of my grandparents, the actual divorce had hit her hard and her studies during that time likely suffered. 

So, not unlike George Bailey in It's a Wonderful Life, she remained at home, whether by choice or not, after her younger sibling left for college. 

But now- suddenly- here was her chance! And though jittery at the thought of starting life over with strangers far from home, trying to tackle college classes and studies, and knowing she was older than most of the other freshmen, she realized she couldn't throw away this opportunity that had fallen at her feet. She was going to go!

My mom later told me that outside of eventually becoming a wife and mother, those years were four of the most rewarding years of her life.

She soon made friends, dove into her studies, enjoyed campus life and all the activities, and grew a lot in her relationship with the Lord. 

The college during the early 1950s had a warm, small community feeling and at its core was a solid faith in Christ.

Despite that little age gap, she fit right in with the students, being a self-proclaimed "late bloomer". 

When I was growing up, she'd let me pour over her college yearbooks. I was fascinated by them. I'm not sure if it was the whole idea of college life that intrigued me, the faith conveyed through the pages, or the nostalgia I felt for the black and white photos of young people from a bygone era. Perhaps it was all of the above.

I still have her yearbooks stashed away somewhere. And recently, I even found where I can access them online- by year, and page by page. I can see her class photos staring back at me, knowing they were captured at a time she when she was flourishing.

My mom graduated four years after she arrived, earning a degree in Christian Education.

No, she never found the love of her life at college. She would have to wait just a little longer for that. But she did tell me the story of a young man there named Bob (who consequently shared a name with my dad) who apparently had a sweet, unrequited love for her. She said he was such a nice person, and she always felt a little guilty that she couldn't return his feelings. But alas, she only cared for him as a friend.

To this day, I can't hear the Nat King Cole song, Autumn Leaves, without remembering her story of how he gave her that little record as a gift.

Fast forward to the Fall of 2022, when my husband and I took a trip to Tennessee just for fun. 

We had such an amazing week touring that state- I'm sure I left a part of my heart there! (A separate post about this trip is probably coming soon!) 

We visited the historic town of Franklin near Nashville and absolutely fell in love with it. 

We rented a car and drove across the state to the east side, staying in a large, beautiful cabin while visiting Dollywood and the nearby towns.

We met up with my husband's old friend and best man at our wedding- whom he had recently gotten back in touch with- and we had a great lunch with he and his wife.

And on the drive back across the peaceful rolling hills of central Tennessee, we took the extra time to find and visit my mom's alma mater, Bryan College. 

Up, through steep green hills and winding roads until we finally arrived.

My mom was by then a few years in heaven, so it was especially meaningful to me to finally see this place she had spoken so fondly about. The place of those treasured yearbooks.

And it was a beautiful campus. Even prettier than I had envisioned it! And though I'm sure the college had changed a bit since my mom attended, it was incredibly special to walk the grounds where she had spent some of her favorite years.

How I wish I could have called her that night to tell her I was there. But maybe she was able to look from heaven and see a glimpse of my visit. I know it would have made her smile.