Degrees, Mar. 18, 1996

Yesterday, we went out to breakfast and then at noon, we went to a corn-beef and cabbage dinner.  I was so full - but Grampa was in "pig" heaven...  We have been watching the squirrel work his way onto the hanging feeder - but when he gets there - Grampa chases him down below.

I was figuring how many colleges I have been to, and I have come up with 20 (one in England) and 3 prep schools (1 in England).  But alas I didn't earn a single degree.  I do have 3 degrees though - an M.O.M., a G.R.A.M., and a G.G. degree.

A short note here - but full of insight into a longing Grammie never fulfilled.  Gram married right out of high school when she was 18.  She had been accepted at Simmons College outside of Boston, but declined to go because of her marriage ("I was married when I was 18 and wow! - did my chores begin then!").  By the time she was 23, she had 5 children, and a husband who turned out not to be Prince Charming.  Grammie was always quite candid with me that her one big regret in life was getting married so young.  She loved learning - did very well in high school - and would have excelled in college.  But, for whatever reason, she chose a different path.  She loved her children dearly, but she regretted her decision to start a family before she'd had a chance to further her own education.

Her love of reading and learning has been passed down to many of her children and grandchildren.  And she was certainly proud of all her progeny, and her role in their upbringing.  But I've always wondered, what would her life have been like if she had chosen the other path all those years ago?  Would she still have married young and had a large family?  Would she have become a teacher or librarian and worked for a while?  How would her outlook on life be different?

Those years with 5 young children and a not-really-there husband made a significant impact on a young woman.  Money was tight and she was often on her own.  Perhaps it was the loss of her own education that made her value those opportunities even more.

Degree or no, she did eventually become a librarian's assistant at Hartford Public High School - when she was 50 years old.  It was a job she adored.  "I was the secretary and I earned $62 a week to start.  When I retired I was earning $225 per week.  I worked there for 17 years.  Did anything and everything necessary in a library and I loved it."

Perhaps she never did go to college, but life experience taught her a hell of a lot: perseverance, self-reliance, and hope.  In the end, she earned the only degree that truly matters: love from her family, to whom she taught so much.