A girl of adventure and fun, Lenora was often doing what girls should not be doing. She’d been caught climbing trees, smoking and drinking alcohol since her early teens. She was the “wild one” of the pack of children in her family.

Her mother longed for her to be a “normal girl,” but Lenora preferred pants to dresses and smoking to sipping tea. She fought hard against society’s notion of what kind of woman she should be. She begged her parents to let her go to college where she earned a degree in literature.

On the day this photo was taken she was at the lake house with her family. Her father had long given up the idea of getting a proper picture of her sitting on a bench in a park in long, ankle-covering skirt. Instead, her father lovingly said, “Let me take your picture L, you are beautiful!”

Lenora quickly jumped up, climbed up the tree and posed. She was never so comfortable as she was in her skin that day.

Written by Julia Roberts, Kidneys and Eyes and co-founder of SupportforSpecialNeeds.com

Augustus Juba Freeman was born in 1866 to a young enslaved woman in Virginia named Sula, whose intelligence and beauty had driven more than one man to distraction.  The master was kind enough, and treated her as well as he would have a prized mare, and he agreed to let her name the child he had fathered.  The end of slavery was in sight, though, and if he was irked by Sula’s choice of a surname for Augustus, he did not let it show.  When Augustus was four years old, he and his mother were emancipated, and they left the home of his father.

Sula, a woman born into slavery but raised in a home where kindness prevailed, had a realistic grasp on the ways of the world, and a personality into which bitterness simply did not fit.  She boldly negotiated a generous grub stake from the master, and with this money, brought her son north to Washington, D.C.  Augustus Freeman had a clever parent who gave him the dignity of having lost his father to a farming accident, so he never had to admit to being the illegitimate son of a slaver.  This secret she carried to her death, and none was the wiser, for Augustus possessed African features and a deep coffee complexion that did not betray his real ancestry.

On their journey, Sula met and spoke freely with other emancipated slaves, and a woman gave her the name of someone who was said to be looking for a housekeeper.  Sula lost no time contacting this family, and was hired on the spot.  Though the matriarch wished for Sula and Augustus to move into her “servants’ quarters,” Sula declined, and she and her son lived in a tiny apartment a few miles away.  Winter and summer, Sula walked to work, to keep house and cook and care for another woman’s children.  Augustus was enrolled in a public school and fended for himself every day after school until his mother came home in time to question him on what he’d learned that day, and to put him to bed.

By age nine, Augustus was completely self sufficient, cooking all their meals, doing his and his mother’s laundry, and keeping their little flat clean.  These chores were the nuisances he had to get out of the way every day so he could settle down to travel the world and its history in books.  Teachers had recognized his potential, and provided him with a wealth of reading material, opening the world of ideas for him.  This child was quiet, self-possessed, and driven.  He intended to go to college and become a teacher, wanting nothing more than to give other children what he had been given:  a love of learning and history and philosophy and literature.

Sula remained fiercely supportive of her son and his ambitious drive for education and a career in teaching.  She and her employer grew to middle age together, becoming close in spite of their differences.  They saw their children reach adulthood and graduate from college, Augustus from Hampton Normal and Agricultural School in Virginia, founded in 1868, whose mission was to provide education to promising young people of color.   Hampton graduates went on to provide education to their peers, newly freed slaves from all over the South.

This photo of Augustus was taken on his graduation day, and on the day he was offered, and accepted, a teaching position at Hampton.

Even though returning to Virginia seemed to Sula a backwards step, she moved with Augustus, and they set up house on the banks of the Chesapeake Bay, in a spacious, simple frame house.  Augustus married a fellow teacher, and Sula helped to raise their children. Satisfied with her son’s success, Sula then turned her attention to her own education, and became one of the first black women in the United States to earn a law degree.  At age fifty-eight, she married, but kept her self-chosen name, Sula Freeman.

Written by Leslie Modena, Mangopunch’s Blog

Sweet Corinna on her 5th birthday.

Enjoying her new shiny dog.

A gift from her uncle Jim, who was her biggest fan.

A happy-go-lucky girl that played a lot.

In the sun.

But still her mother made her wear a jacket and hat.

Which is why in her 20s she refused to wear a coat, even on chilly nights.

Preferring a shawl.

When she was little she played a lot.

Skating. Playing. And once a carousel, which she loved.

School. Dances. Best friends.

Wickedly smart.

In the same city as Uncle Jim she attended college.

New York City.

She became working girl.

In the big city she stayed.

Near her Uncle Jim.

Who always watched over her.

Written by Julia Roberts

Kidneys and Eyes, personal blog

Support for Special Needs, networking site

Proud Wesleyan Female College women alumni Esther and Molly.

Sisters in life and in college, Esther and Molly were always close. Wesleyan Female College in Macon, Georgia Class of 1898 they were quite the renegade pair. They were afforded the luxury of coming from a family of wealth and they’d made there way to college from rural Georgia to the then, “Big City” of Macon, Georgia.

They both had proper manners and thick southern accents. They were both women with a keen sense of humor and soon after arrival at Wesleyan, chemistry and astronomy took hold of their imaginations and they studied hard. At the top of their class for their chosen fields they were popular throughout the college and leaders with the incoming classes mentoring other young women scholars.

Esther was science smart and had been since she was young. Always showing an interest in all thing science, her father especially pushed her to follow the path of education. Molly showed an interest in the universe beyond. Her parents thought she was a foolish dreamer but they’d allowed it at the urging of Esther. Their parents were unusual that they wanted their daughters to follow the education route to their happiness instead of the expected marriage and family. If marriage and children came, they said, so be it.

Incidentally Molly did end up having a family but not before she opened up her own small planetarium in the really Big City. Here parents had financed the operation. They’d considered it a whim of hers never realizing that it would teach children around the really Big City about the universe beyond. Molly had become a teacher to many and her parents couldn’t be more surprised that their little investment had paid off and had become the region’s pride, interesting college universities and primary schools for it’s teachings.

Esther became a chemist, working in pharmacology research and development. She was at the top of her field for years, developing drugs to help children and adults live better lives. In some cases, when she was really lucky, she was involved in developing drugs that saved lives. She loved her job and her life and she was a woman to be reckoned with in the corporate arena of big pharma. She was responsible for creating a friendly workplace for women; demanding the same “luxuries” afforded men like equal pay and a non-hostile workplace. She could not and would not be ignored by the higher ups and she made life for the women behind her easier.

When Esther and Molly met up on the day this picture was taken at an alumni visit and college celebration they didn’t attend so they could see each other – they played bridge weekly and had coffee numerous times a month over pastries at a local sweet shop now that they were retired. They thought it would be fun to see their old college and the young women of this day.

To look at them with their roller-styled hair and their sensible shoes and their best hats you would never know that they helped pave the way for young career women in the 1900s throughout the southeast. Esther and Molly had visited Wesleyan College without knowing they were being honored for the perseverance for the rights of all women.

Esther and Molly left the ceremony that day and reminisced about their days at Wesleyan. They laughed. Then they drank a lot of coffee and played a quick game a bridge.

Written by Julia Roberts, Kidneys and Eyes

Helen was a working woman. A woman of means to get things done.

Her hair sat comfortably in a messy braid at the NAPE of her neck, as it did every single day.

She was a woman who wore shoes that let her get things done.

Her legs were incredibly shapely, thanks to the long days she spent standing and working.

HER ARMS STRONG with muscles stronger than young men.

Helen was a woman of simple means with a spirited personality.

Helen HAULED rain water she collected to feed the small garden through the back yard.

She often used run off from her sink or rain to water the garden. Because she was RESOURCEFUL.

The garden provided something nearly each day of the year for the family.

Some days it was fresh, other days it was canned. Each day delicious and NOURISHING.

Helen admittedly let the back yard “GO TO THE DOGS” as the neighbors would say.

She thought to herself, “This is something I know.”

TO OUTSIDERS her life seemed hard, hard.

Helen considered her life full and meaningful.

She was WELL-LOVED.

Written by Julia Roberts, Kidneys and Eyes

It is 1922. It is Summer.

And they are at a lake in Wisconsin. There are a lot of lakes in Wisconsin.

They are best friends. And have been since they were pigtailed girls.

Sarah on the left. Mary Elizabeth on the right.

Just out of high school and moving on to college. Both of them.

Three parents not pleased. One supportive and happy.

One a teacher, one a writer. They would become.

A young man took this picture. On the boat going nowhere.

Sarah mildly amused. Mary E. preparing a snack.

Bread and cheese. They would share with the young man.

Who one would marry years later. After college and careers were started.

One set off to see the world. One raised babies that would set off to see the world.

Because they had an “Aunt.” Who lived everywhere.

Traveling girl would return to her friend. And they would pick up where they left off.

Reminiscing about the days on the lake in Wisconsin. They laughed.

They shared the world stories. As if they were both traveling.

One never feeling tied down. And one feeling she had roots.

They gave each other the best. Of each life they had.

Written by Julia Roberts, Kidneys and Eyes

Aletha would spend her life traveling with a performance group, otherwise known as her family. Her big, thunderously loud family. Her heavy European accent came through heavily and about her every 5th word was understandable English.

She’d been born to a (thunderously loud) traveling family. The family had never put roots down anywhere and so Aletha didn’t know any different. She was by all accounts a sad girl who did what she was told; sometimes it was performing and sometimes it was working the crowd and sometimes it would be both.

Her family brought all of their possessions with them including performance needs like tents, stage, costumes and souvenirs to sell. Aletha had been allowed one small suitcase of personal items. It held a few special books, a mirror, hairbrush, a change of clothes and two pieces of artisan jewelry.

The jewelry had been given to her by her father. She treasured the pieces that she’d been told came from at least 3 generations back. She had wondered many times as she tried on the pieces – a necklace and bracelet, not matching – what relative wore them years ago. She used her little hand mirror to see how they looked and each time she imagined she lived somewhere else except nowhere.

She imagined that in another time she was a girl with a stable family with roots.

A home not on wheels and a kitchen with a fire not on the ground. She wished for more possessions and a wardrobe chest in which to keep them. She longed to have a friend her age with interests outside her own. Oh, the number of times she wished for a friend her age to talk to about books and boys and anything but where their next performance was and how many nights they would stay.

Then one day she overheard her mother talking about her childhood and it sounded very much like her own. She never truly connected her and her mother’s experience before that day. She learned her mother had the same desire for stability for a time but later in life she realized that the world was her home. The gift that each town gave her was acceptance and a new beginning.

Aletha learned her mother, at each performance, played any person she wanted to be and eventually she settled on the woman she became. A loving, caring, vivacious, wife and mother who was also an artist and performer with a sense of humor. She had a passion for learning about other people and about the world. Her mother provided Aletha a great gift.

The world was her home and provided her roots.

Written by Julia Roberts, Kidneys and Eyes

Dear Mother and Father,

I hope this letter finds you well. Please write and tell me Aunt Gracie is feeling better. I am delighted you were able to travel to be with her while she was ill. Won’t you tell her hello for me when you go again for a visit?

I apologize for the delay in writing and mailing this letter as I have been very busy making arrangements for housing. I was able to find a roommate. She is another secretary at the college and so we are together quite a lot actually. Our hours are the same and she works near my department. Her name is Clara.

I started work last week for Professor Kaplan and I am pleased. The work is interesting and easy. The work doesn’t keep me too busy and I am able to have a social life through the church where Clara and I attend at every chance.

I am genuinely surprised at the number of young women attending college here and I might check into taking classes in the future myself, so when you have a moment will you send me my high school records?

I am going to a church social after church with Clara so I must leave now but please know that I love you and miss you,

With loving affection always,

Your Violet

——————————-

Lillian,

I cannot wait to tell you about what is happening since I moved, dear sister! I have been enjoying myself and am so happy to have moved.

My job is enjoyable and it is a dream to be around all of the young people. It makes me want to be a part of  academia. There are women here studying. Many women in fact and I want to be a part of it. I was thinking I could become a teacher or a nurse.

I have been going to clubs with my roommate Clara and we are dancing until all hours each Friday and Saturday evening. I have learned the Charleston and Shag. I am not very good but I am trying. We have met a few gentlemen and I’ve been kissed a few times! It is truly scandalous! Do not tell Mother and Father but it is quite a lot of fun to be social with men my age. There are so many more options than back home. I do have a bit of a crush on the Professor I work for but he is uninterested and sadly he is married. He is very nice to me and respectful and dare I say that is boring.

I have also been visiting a little book store that has poetry readings and there is alcohol and smoking and laughing! Clara writes some poetry and so she read one of her poems last week and it was well received.

When you can you visit? It would make my heart happy to have you here as my guest and I know you and Clara would get along splendidly. You would love to go dancing with us working girls to meet some fellows! You never know, there might be some kissing!

Loving you always sis,

Violet

Written by Julia Roberts, Kidneys and Eyes

Frank was a great guy. Much to the dismay of his mother, Frank reached age 35 without being married. Frank loved cars, everything about them. He loved to sell them too. On many a Saturday he would meet a couple in his showroom, talk directly to the husband – the decision maker – and make a deal.

Except for that one Saturday when he talked directly to the wife. The husband didn’t even notice that Frank was flirting with his better half as he was inhaling and exhaling on a Winston cigarette.

Harry and Christina (or Chrissy, the pet name Harry had for her) were married for 2 years at the time that they walked in the showroom to purchase a new car that day. Their first new car. Harry got a promotion months earlier and they were saving to pay for the new car. A sturdy car that would carry their future family to dinner parties and picnics and Harry to and from work and Chrissy to the grocery store and bank.

But that day Harry and Christina didn’t know that those family fun times would never happen because the moment Frank saw Christina he knew he wanted to be with her. Not just “be with” her but to have an all consuming life with her. He wanted to give himself completely to her and she to him.

But he’d never done that before. Over the years he spent time with various women who he didn’t want to marry, nor did they want to marry. They were “loose” women. Women who knew they weren’t marriage material.  He had a good life. Money, scotch and women. Then it all changed.

For the next few months Frank found reasons to call Harry and Christina about their car. One time he called to ask how they liked the car and another to see if they needed to service it. Yet another time he called and reached Christina directly.

They spoke on the party line about mundane things but Christina was not a stupid woman. She attended college until she dropped out to marry Harry. She always wanted to return, but now that she was married and hoping to start a family, she knew those dreams were lost. Over the next weeks Frank encouraged her to continue her education, and then asked her to come to lunch.

She knew she shouldn’t go, but she liked the attention that Frank seemed to provide and so she went because it seemed far enough away from her friends and neighbors. He told her she was beautiful. She told him to stop because it wasn’t appropriate. He let his hand softly touch hers as he reached for his lunchtime cocktail and she pulled her hand away. Yet, she was still there enjoying how Frank made her feel.

It wasn’t before long and those lunches became regular occurrences. Christina, always found a reason to be in town for jewelry to repair, a special order to pick up, or to attend a doctor appointment. She knew it would end up happening; her kissing Frank on the way out to her car in the alley of the restaurant and it was over.

An all powerful love affair began and before Christina knew it she was in love with Frank. She ended up leaving Harry and losing her entire family in the process. Harry ended up remarrying Helen, a young widow with a 3 year old son and they were gloriously happy as they added to their family over the years 2 other children.

Frank and Christina had a long life together. Christina finished college like she wanted and Frank encouraged and they traveled and dined at fine restaurants. They never had children, but had always known that being with each other were enough.

Written by Julia Roberts, Kidneys and Eyes

Homer is the son of 3 generations of miners in West Virginia. Raised with two sisters, a brother and a grandmother in a home built by his grandfather and uncles, he took to books instead of manual labor.

Because mining was all they’d known, his parents didn’t always think taking to books was a good way to go and they thought he should probably follow in the footsteps of the men folk in his family, for security, for the future. He didn’t.

Homer was a quiet boy and had grown into a reserved young man. To the bystander, it appeared he was the outsider to his family. He’d done well in school but his parents and grandparents wanted him to drop out of school at age 16 to become a miner. He went against the expected path and stayed in school and made repairs of machinery for money he was saving for college.

He never knew that attending college was his parent’s greatest wish for him, they didn’t know it could be possible. They’d been saving for years a few cents here, a dollar there. While they didn’t really know how to express their happiness and pride to Homer directly, they were immensely proud.

Homer did attend college. Even at age 17 he worked tirelessly with the small high school (67 graduates that year) to learn what he would need to do to attend. He was his town’s greatest student. By way of the school counselor people from the town of miners often pitched in their pennies to help support him through the years, him never knowing how his needs were continually met.

He finished college as an engineer with the highest grades in the school. The professors never knew what fueled him to study so hard. They didn’t know why engineering meant so much to him and in particular why the mining industry held such a hold on him.

They didn’t know that throughout his life he’d watched his family bury 6 relatives, among them a grandfather and 2 uncles and countless neighbors due to unsafe conditions below the ground in the dark. He never wanted another family to suffer the losses his family had suffered. He’d always believed that those missing members of his family impacted his life, his siblings, cousins and community in immeasurable ways. Those losses would fuel his desire to change mining safety – which he did for many years – saving a community of people from the pain of a coal miner’s death.

Written by Julia Roberts, Kidneys and Eyes