My Great Grandmother, Mama Jo

Every family event, it always ended up at my grandmother’s home. I feel as though my grandmother did an amazing job at hosting the family gatherings. She is great at keeping the family so tight. We all come together because of her, ad I hope our generations of family members will keep that alive. With that being said I cherish every moment that was held in that house, all my memories are there.

My grandmother was born in Guatemala into a struggling family of seven. In Guatemala, kids are often forced to leave school and start working to help provide for their family´s food and shelter. Similarly, my grandmother was not able to complete her education. Instead, she had to take care of her siblings, providing for their basic needs. As she grew up, she had three kids, including my father, and needed to find a way to give them a better life.

I have a passion for helping children and an interest in pursuing school social work, I decided to interview my mother’s co-worker, Belle Walker. Belle is an exceptional children’s (EC) social worker for Union County Public Schools and works directly with students and families who need assistance finding resources in order for them to succeed in the classroom. Belle is a very passionate person and loves her work. During her undergraduate, she held an internship at a transitional homeless shelter working with families. As she attended graduate school in Illinois, Belle worked night shifts in a domestic violence shelter as a counselor. After graduate school, she decided to move back to Charlotte and found a job working with A Child’s Place

As I have a passion for helping children and an interest for pursuing school social work, I decided to interview my mother’s co-worker, Belle Walker. Belle is an exceptional children’s (EC) social worker for Union County public schools and works directly with students and families who need assistance finding resources to help them succeed in the classroom. Belle is a very passionate person and loves her work. During her undergraduate, she held an internship at a transitional homeless shelter working with families. As she attended graduate school in Illinois, Belle worked in a domestic violence shelter as a counselor during the nights. After graduate school she decided to move back to Charlotte and found a job working with A Child’s Place as a caseworker for homeless families through the school system. She has now been working with Union County public schools for three years and plans to work with the school system for as long as she can because she feels that she has found fitting.

These occupations are instrumental activities of daily living (IADL). Also, based from my community observations, both the father and daughter engaged in the occupations of leisure, play, and rest along with three IADLs mentioned earlier.

“I didn’t learn to be quiet when I had an opinion . The reason they knew who I was is because I told them.” (Ursula Burns)

My family culture has been a big part of my life even through the changes my life has taken. Every year, my family celebrates Thanksgiving and Christmas. The locations and the faces may change, but the ritual of spending the holidays together remain a highlight of the year. Since living in Indiana, I have spent Thanksgiving with my father’s family in Spencer and have traveled back home to Delaware to be with my immediate family during Christmas. This has been a routine of mine for the past several years and it has allowed me to grow closer with family members I used to never see.

There are events that help you learn a lesson that will stay with you forever, and you can apply it to any situation. The article “My Brooklyn Grandmother” from The Lost Garden by Laurence Yap is about an experience the author has with his grandmother that teaches him a cultural lesson that he uses today as an adult. A cooking experience with his grandmother allowed him to be able to understand his culture and use the lesson in life. The lesson about the culture that the grandmother teaches the author is to be determined to achieve his goals until they are perfect.

Based upon what I have learned after interviewing my grandmother over the 1960’s era, I came to understand what it was like for those that lived during that time. The 1960’s was a time of change. The ideas of politics, society, and overall way of life was completely transforming. The idea of revolution some would say grew as a heavy thought throughout a lot of Americans during the time especially in the younger generations. Though America was facing it conflicts in society with culture change, racism and foreign policies, the country itself was growing. The United States became a place where once ideas only mankind could only dream about were becoming real. This paving the way for America to take the roll in securing its title the greatest country on Earth.

Tradition is a trait that can be found in every family throughout the world. This is particularly true for my family as I grew up in the suburbs of Detroit, Michigan. Of all the traditions that my family had while I grew up, the one that sticks out most in my mind is spending time with my family on Sunday afternoons and holidays either playing games with my cousins, eating food fresh off the grill, watching holiday fireworks, or learning more about my family history than I already knew. Therefore, my family tradition has a rich historical perspective, high importance, and great effects on me to this day.

My loving mother, Ola Mae Pittman, for her constant love and words of wisdom. Mom, you have sacrificed so much for us. I thank God for giving you the strength to endure and always reassuring the family that the Lord will make a way somehow.

My Bubbe is sitting on the couch playing on her ipad, my mom is texting her work friend as she pets my cats and I am cheering my dad on as he tries to clear his video game level, this is a typical scene at the Cottingham-frye house. My family is a very laid back chill group of people who value each others thoughts and opinions and I am glad to have them home every time I walk in my house. We all love each other and we listen to EVERYTHING about each other's day no matter how silly it may have been. I love my family and would not trade them for the world, no matter how weird they can get.

Since my family lived so close together, we had many family traditions that remain important. We gather for nearly every holiday for a meal and routine. For Easter every year, we have an Easter egg hunt and dinner at my grandmother’s house. For Christmas Eve, we always went to my great-grandparents house and had dinner and exchanged gifts. For Christmas, we celebrated at home, and then went to my grandmother's for breakfast with our cousins. The importance of all of the holidays we celebrated was that no matter what was going on in our lives,

I have decided to write my essay on my grandmother, Queen Godstime Ekpekurede. Like many other successful people, she has had to overcome adversity in order to succeed and I hope you will agree she is an inspirational character.

My grandmother’s house has a very special place in my heart. As the family has gotten older and we have all had our own children we do not visit as we should. I visited with my grandmother many times when I was little. Her house always seemed to have something about it that set it apart from all the rest. As you walk into the back door of her house you would notice a long, narrow kitchen that led into the main living and dining room of her house. The smell of food home cooked food was quite evident. Grandmother cooked every day and always cooked big meals on holidays for the family.