My Grandmother and I

I visit my grandmother as often as I can. I have written about her in many blog posts, my news column, and I have spoken about her on my radio show. I can talk endlessly about my grandmother. My grandmother has even gotten a shout out on social media.

Each visit home brings new revelations about my grandmother’s life. She is not perfect but she is my beloved. Each visit gives more insight into who I am and my personality, the many lives my grandmother has impacted, the power of love, and the grace of God. Each visit leaves me humbled and grateful for the smaller things in life.

My holiday visit was my most recent trip. I did not tell my grandmother when I was coming, only that I was coming. I have learned that giving a specific date leads to disappointments for both of us. My schedule is that of a mad woman and no matter how I try to be specific about dates or times, life interrupts. But when I say I am coming, she knows, rain or shine, snow or ice, I am going to make my way to Mississippi.

For Christmas 2012, I made it hours shy of Christmas Day. But I came in full Ms. Santa’s gear. I sneaked into town and drove straight to the nursing home where she resides. After getting buzzed in, I winked at the nurses who were all smiles (and probably all kinfolks in one way or another) when they saw me. I knew she would be up watching TV. I put down my bags of goodies for her and the other residents of the home and I walked up behind her.

In her ear, I whispered, “What’s up chic?” Her tears started flowing almost immediately as she turned to look up at me. Upon hearing my voice, my grandmother said, “My baby is home. Yes, my baby is home.” My tears started too. We carry own like this every time we see each other.

Surprise!

There is never a shortage of tears when we greet each other. We cry for a while and then start laughing and then start crying some more. She boldly stated after gathering her wits, “I knew you were coming.” Hugging her for what seemed an eternity, I said, “Mother you look so good!”

After giving me a head to toe inspection, she said, “You look good, too.” She then touched my Santa suit and the pearls she gave me years ago and started talking nonstop. Soon our roles of grandmother and granddaughter, flesh of her flesh, meshed into two hens without a care in the world. Time seemed to stand still as we picked up where we left off. We seemed joined at the hip in thought and speech. I had to stop our conversation because I realized everyone was watching us.

I gathered her things and off to her room we rolled to finish our conversation. For the rest of the day, we caught up on all things in my little home town, and I shared about life in Nashville. The more we talked, the louder we laughed, and the more folks came to her door to make sure we were okay.

My grandmother reading a copy of Mocha Market

At some point, I had to pull myself away. My grandmother was in good spirits, and it showed. I finally managed to make my way to Stringer Drive to my parents’ home.


Once there, I unpacked and exchanged gifts with my mom and dad. My grandmother’s well-being was on everyone’s mind. I encouraged them by telling them how good my grandmother looked; the hard work of the family was obvious. My evening was spent catching up on the holistic welfare of my grandmother.

Later, I got busy around my mom’s cooking and planning a New Year Eve’s bash for my grandmother and the other residents of the nursing home. My head was racing with ideas. I brought party items from Nashville, but I still needed to go to town (Natchez, MS) to get a few more items. Immediately I thought about Nashville and for a brief moment, I wanted to be Jasmine with a magic carpet. The next day, I managed to make it to Natchez, shop for items, and get back to Fayette in less than two hours. Whew!

On New Year’s Eve, my grandmother and I had the grandest time. There were many at the party, but we were having our own party. Decked out in her 2013 top hat and jewelry, she laughed and blew her horns. She wore “sparkly” nails that told you she was in a festive move. The dining hall was beautifully decorated. We popped the bubbly, sparkling grape juice, and the staffed toasted every good deed EVER done! Most laughed like no tomorrow while one of the residents, Slater, danced the time away! I soaked up the sight of my grandmother having so much fun.

Slater Dancing like it is 1999!

As usual, the time with my grandmother came to an end much too quickly. I dreaded driving back to Tennessee. Leaving is always the hardest part of my trips home. My carload becomes lighter but my heart gets heavier each time. On my way back to Nashville, I saw a billboard that read “Visit Vicksburg”. I whispered quietly, “Thank you God for my grandmother.”

Seeing the billboard reminded me of New Year’s Eve 2011 at Vicksburg’s Mercy Hospital. My grandmother was hospitalized after being very ill for weeks. In 2011, I spent the holidays with my grandmother in the hospital. We laughed but not nearly as much. We cried, too, but my tears that year were of sadness from watching her struggle to live. I prayed daily that her body would be without the drips, needles, nurses, doctors, and pills for a pill. And this Christmas 2012, she was doing just fine.

New Year's Eve 2011

Christmas Day 2011

New Year's Eve 2012

New Year's Eve 2012

Look at God. What a difference a year makes. God answers prayers. My grandmother and I were toasting to bring in 2012 with Ensure and were popping Champagne and dancing to bring in 2013. Did I mention we laughed a lot?

Oh my, I serve a mighty good God!

Crissy Haslam and Ephie Ballard Johnson on Living Your Best Life with Genma Holmes

Join Living Your Best Life with Genma Holmes as we profile organizations and leaders who lead by example. With extraordinary acts of kindness and charitable giving that help countless lives daily, these organizations and leaders embody "Be the change you want to see in the world". Hear from CEOs of social enterprise businesses who are changing communities and founders of networks that are changing how business is done by changing the rules, one conversation at a time.

On Saturday, October 27, 2012, tune in to hear Tennessee's First Lady, Crissy Haslam, and Memphis Song Bird, Ephie Ballard Johnson, discuss First Ladies for Healthy Babies. First Ladies For Healthy Babies is an initiative that was launched with members of the faith-based community in Memphis in support of the Operation Smart Child program in June of 2011.

Operation Smart Child is a family outreach and education initiative of the Neighborhood Christian Centers, in partnership with The Urban Child Institute in Memphis. It is designed to impact the mental, social, economic, and spiritual lives of children through early brain development strategies and interventions. Since the Memphis launch last year, Crissy Haslam has kicked off Nashville's First Ladies for Healthy Babies in April and will lauch the Knoxville area's event on November 8, 2012.

Crissy Haslam and Ephie Johnson will share what inspired them to address the needs of the youngest Tennesseans while emphasizing the important role that parents play as their child’s first teacher. Both leading ladies will also shares how families can help eliminate healthcare and educational disparities in the Volunteer State, like reading twenty minutes a day to a child.

Living Your Best Life can be heard  on 760AM in the Middle Tennessee Region, streaming live online at UStream.TV and on military bases on Saturdays from 9:00-10am CST. Crissy Haslam's interview was originally aired on XM's HBCU Channel on WTST.

More About Crissy Haslam

Born in Houston, Texas, Crissy Haslam moved with her family to Memphis, Tennessee when she was eight years old. She attended St. Mary's Episcopal School in Memphis and continued on to Emory University for college, where she served as the Vice-President of the Business School Council. Crissy graduated from Emory in 1980 with a double major in Finance and Marketing in the College of Business.

Crissy married Bill Haslam and moved to Knoxville in 1981. While working as the assistant director of admissions for UT-Knoxville, she received a Master of Science degree in Education in the program of College Student Personnel.

She has served on numerous civic and community boards, and currently serves as chair of the Tennessee Executive Residence Foundation.

Crissy and Bill have 3 grown children.

As First Lady of Tennessee, Crissy has introduced a three-part initiative that focuses on the interplay between family engagement and literacy improvement in Tennessee. She has been traveling the state to stress the importance of parents as first teachers, parents as education partners, and also to raise awareness for the exponential value of reading on grade level by the 3rd grade.

Crissy Haslam's social media sites are: Twitter , Facebook, YouTube, and Website.

More About Ephie Ballard Johnson 

Ephie Johnson, president and CEO of the Neighborhood Christian Centers, was born in Memphis just six days after Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was killed. Although born during a troubling time, Johnson believes that Memphis is filled with potential and has spent her life working with those less fortunate than herself.

She considers her parents, Dr. JoeAnn and the late Monroe Ballard, to be extraordinary role models when it comes to giving back.

"All my life," she said, "I've known giving through my parents' eyes."
As she was growing up, her parents mentored more than 75 girls from impoverished or at-risk homes, helping them to become young, independent people.

It was through this work and through a desire to help others that Johnson's mother co-founded what is now known as the Neighborhood Christian Centers.

The Neighborhood Christian Center is a faith-based organization that serves entire families and has seven full-service sites in Memphis and numerous satellite and chapter affiliations.
But even with service being her family's lifeblood, Johnson initially shied away from that direct path, choosing instead to be a teacher. But as she taught, Johnson realized that she was more like her parents than she had thought.

After marrying and moving away to Alabama, Johnson moved back to Memphis to become her mother's apprentice believing that "God was grooming me according to His plan for me."
While working alongside her mother at the Neighborhood Christian Center for 13 years, Johnson drove the van, painted the walls, cooked in the kitchen , counseled clients, and learned the ministry of serving people -- earning everything she could about the mission of the Neighborhood Christian Centers and how to minister to those it serves. She formally took over as CEO in May 2008.
Johnson also hosts the "FaithForum" on FOX Memphis and serves as the choir director for Hope Presbyterian Church, where she enjoys sharing her love of song.

"God gave me a singing ability and a desire to share through song," she said. "Plus, it's important to have something outside of my day-to-day world."

Excerpt above from The Commercial Appeal. 
More About Ephie Ballard Johnson can be found here.

Living Your Best Life would like to thank media partners: WTST The Blaze at TSU, 760 The Gospel, Mocha Market Magazine, Rhealistic Branding and News Channel 5 Urban Outlook.

Story on First Ladies for Healthy Babies written by Genma Holmes can be found here.

Photo Credits: State of TN except Crissy Haslam and Genma Holmes (John Cross)
                        

Food Service Workers by The Numbers at MNPS

After months of listening to many female food services workers share in whispered tones their agony of working in an environment that has been described as being hostile to anyone with “thinking skills”; I finally realized the depth of those conversations when an email from a male supervisor hit the internet in December. It was not that I did not believe anyone but often times the stories shared would remind me of overhearing my grandmother and mother talk about work life in a rural community.

It was hard to digest that derogatory statements, intimidating attitudes, and a demeaning workplace atmosphere were alive and well in Nashville (a city I love dearly) and being openly discussed in the community that seem to look the other way. I would often ask, “If everyone knows about the plight of the food service workers, then why are we whispering about it?” My question was often met with blank stares but on one occasion an older woman said to me, “Child, the more things change, the more they remain the same”.

As many changes are being made to help improve the educational infrastructure at Metro Nashville Public Schools (MNPS), maintaining good support personnel is an essential part of the foundation of a good school system. Food service workers are support personnel. They are not the principals leading the schools or the teachers in the classrooms who teach a child his or her ABCs but they are part of the village that influences and prepares students for a brighter future.

To have an unstable support personnel system undermines any short term goals or long term strategies to creating a healthier school system that will produce higher test scores and drastically improve graduation rates. When an email gives you a small glimpse of much bigger issues, MNPS leadership should hit the pause button and begin to dig deeper. When we are flying at 30,000 feet, one can easily mistake a dirt mound above ground to be hills that can be easily flatten by a bulldozer. In Tennessee, those hills can actually be entrances to deep dark caves.

As we learned in fifth grade, cave formations date back thousands of years. Many are veiled in darkness with acidic standing water while carbon monoxide permeates the air. Caves have tunnels that lead to other tunnels that lead nowhere. A school system should not be seen as a cave with endless nowhere leading tunnels by parents or the community who should be loyal supporters. Nor should educators and support personnel who work in the system see it as dark depressing cave-like atmosphere filled with administrators with toxic behavior.

As MNPS continue to look at various ways to improve the all-encompassing educational experience for all students attending public schools, parents and the community at large must take the time to become more educated on all matters surrounding MNPS. To continue to drag out employee disputes on issues like being able to file a grievance, to appeal a disciplinary action, or who will answer the phone on Mondays, takes time away from ginormous test scores concerns that makes one wonder if the students are learning from stone tablets. While at the same time, many of the buildings are beginning to look like caves forming right in front of you.

It came as no surprise that some believed that the media attention to the now infamous caveman email was an overreaction by hyper sensitive female employees to a harmless joke. In actuality, it was a delayed reaction for many food service workers who have watched MNPS for several years use intimidation and fear as the primary form of communication to over 700 women who make up the food service department.

Women are often known as society’s first teachers in life. The women in the MNPS food service department are mothers, grandmothers, aunts, sisters, cousins, primary caretakers, neighbors, church members, Girl Scout leaders, football team moms, and lifelong cheerleaders of the family. They come from various socioeconomic backgrounds and throughout the district. The women in the food service department touch the lives of thousands of young people every day: at home, at the schools they work in, and in the neighborhoods and communities where they live. They can be influential in helping MNPS transition from a school system in crisis to a district with well-rounded students who score higher on tests and graduate from high school.

MNPS Mission and Vision

Metropolitan Nashville Public Schools will provide every student with the foundation of knowledge, skills and character necessary to excel in higher education, work and life.

We embrace and value a diverse student population and community. Different perspectives and backgrounds form the cornerstone of our strong public education system.

With so many deep caverns to climb out of, it is vital that MNPS build partnerships at every level in the school system, with families, and in the community. No one should be overlooked or devalued when looking for solutions to prepare our young people for "higher education, work, and life". It is going to take an entire village to help turn things around. MNPS may not have realized it yet but the “lunchroom ladies” are part of that village and are valuable in the community. Let us treat them with dignity in their work environments. Ultimately, the students being educated are the benefactors of improved employee relations at MNPS and the community will reaps the rewards for years to come.

Community Colleges: Preparing Students for Tomorrow's Marketplace

Join Genma Holmes for in-depth dialogue with educators from diverse backgrounds who teach and touch the lives of our students from K-12 and college. Also hear from parents and students throughout the month of August as well prepare our minds and bodies for back to school on Living Your Best Life Radio Show. Saturdays from 10-12 on 880AM, the Big Mouth!





Dr. Janet Smith
President of Columbia State Community College

Dr. Janet F. Smith was named president of Columbia State Community College in late November 2007, and officially took over the presidency on February 18, 2008. Smith returned to her native Tennessee following a distinguished career which has taken her to North Carolina, Tennessee, New York, Kentucky, and Arkansas.

Smith grew up in Houston County, near Erin, Tennessee. She attended Austin Peay State University where she earned a Bachelor’s degree with a major in health and physical education and a Master’s in Curriculum and Instruction. Following Austin Peay, she earned a Doctorate in higher education from George Peabody College for Teachers, Vanderbilt University. She has participated in post-graduate studies at North Carolina State University, Indiana University, Mississippi State University and Harvard.

Prior to becoming President of Columbia State Community College, Smith was President of Rich Mountain Community College in Mena, Arkansas; Dean of Academic Affairs at Hopkinsville Community College in Hopkinsville, Kentucky; Director of Extension Services at Dyersburg State Community College in Dyersburg, Tennessee; and Instructor, Department Chair and Division Chair at Isothermal Community College in North Carolina.

Dr. Smith is very active in the communities that Columbia State serves – she has presented at area and state conferences, clubs, organizations and events. She currently serves on the Impact Center Inc. Board, Workforce Investment Board, Maury Alliance Board of Directors (Executive Committee and Chamber Council Chair), Williamson County-Franklin Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors, Maury Advisory Board to First Farmers Bank, Nashville Symphony Advisory Council and the Family Support Center Board. In addition, Smith is Vice President of the Tennessee College Association and a member of the national advisory board for the Higher Education Research and Development Institute.

Smith is married to James (Jim) W. Fowler, who is a retired community college Librarian. They reside in Columbia, Tennessee with their daughter Alexandra Hiles.

“Education has been my lifelong work,” said Smith. “I am not just a believer in the value of education but a walking example of the impact of an education on opportunity and life enrichment.”



Dr. Stephen Jones
Author and Educator
Dr. Jones is currently Associate Dean of Students and Strategic Planning at Villanova University and CEO of SAJ Publishing. For thirteen years he worked at Drexel University as Director of the SUCCESS/ACT101 program. He is trhe former director of the ACT101 program at Philadelphia University and Director of the Metropolitan Career Center Computer Technology Institute. He has received numerous awards for his dedication to thousands of students. Some of his awards include Distinguished Toast Master, Toastmasters District Award Winner, National Society of Black Engineers Award and Black Engineer of the Year Award.

My Goal: My vision to reach 1 million students and parents to help them to attend college. My first book is titled "Seven Secrets of How to Study" and my second book is " Parents Ultimate Education Guide, Seven Secrets of How to Study Special Edition."



Living Your Best Life Radio can be heard on on 880 AM "The Big Mouth" and on Ustream.tv @ http://bit.ly/liEfqO