Mary: I grew up in the inner city of Chicago. My mother, I don't know how she did it all because my father died before I was two.
Cynthia: Wow.
Mary: And she was left with my brother was eight. My sister was not quite three. My sister and I, we were 13 months and three days apart and we were extremely close. I lost her in 2022. But my mother, she put us through private school. We always had Christmas presents, Thanksgiving dinner, Easter clothes. We were low-income, but we didn't know we were so-called poor. My mother was a mother. She made sure that we got the best education. She was president of the PTA all through my school. And she's telling these religious sisters, ‘Isn’t it time for you to get the report cards out?’ I'm going like, oh. man. She took care of us. Generous without a fault, but she wasn't a push over either. She taught me how to be responsible.
Cynthia: And opposite of you, I grew up in a very small town where we had one stoplight.
Mary: Woohoo!
Cynthia: We didn't even get a McDonald's until later on after I was out of high school. We did get a couple more stoplights later. It was also in an area where there was Amish community. So having a horse and buggy on the road was not surprising to me because I grew up with Amish and Mennonites. Grand Rapids area is probably the biggest city I've lived in, but I've traveled a lot with my husband and my kids and their adult children now.
Mary: I think it would be peaceful living in a small, quiet community.
Cynthia: My mom, she was a homemaker, so she didn't work. My dad was the sole income in the home. He worked for like an LP gas company because in the rural area, a lot of people would use the LP gas to heat their homes and stuff like that. So, he would go out and deliver it. My mom worked at home until I was in high school, and she worked at a nursing home in the activity department. And she did a lot of baking and kept up the home. But for our birthdays, we could always pick what kind of birthday cake we wanted. She would get the Barbie doll, and the cake would be the dress on the doll. She made Barbie doll clothes for us and stuff like that because we didn't have a lot of money either. I'm a social worker. My title is a supports coordinator. I work with people with disabilities. You know, not everyone's comfortable with them, but I like hanging around with them. Some are nonverbal, so I don't have conversations with them. I just sit in the room with them and like today I was just holding that person's hand. I could tell that they're having some rough moments because they were making some sounds that sound like they were in distress. So, I just held their hand. Just being in the same room sometimes and not having to have a conversation works for me too. I like my peace load because I have a variety of different levels of people as far as abilities. Can they speak? Do they hear? Do they see? Do they walk? Do they use a wheelchair? Those kinds of things.
Mary: I worked in California as a traveling teller. I went where they needed me. Somebody didn't call-in, sick. They would be a teller short, or someone wanted to go on vacation. And I got robbed in San Francisco in one of the swankiest branches with the crystal chandeliers. I went to work; it was on a Friday. I was supposed to be at another branch, and they were short so they asked, could I go over and work at the bigger branch? And I had a cold. I should not have even gone to work that day, but I wasn't a call-in person. I walked past all of these tellers that were closing their window, like 10 minutes before the bank closed, and I had a little bit of an attitude. My husband called, I went and answered the phone, and he said to me what he never said before, be careful, be safe. And I went back to my window, and I opened up my drawer and this guy came in and he took a piece of notebook paper out. He unfolded it and put it in front of me. And I'm looking at him like, that's not a check. And when I read it, it said, this is a bank robbery. Give me $100s, $50s and $20s now. And I looked at him and said, ‘Why you pick me? I don't feel like being robbed.’ He stood in front of me and he kind of pulled back, it was like a plastic shopping bag, and he pulled it back. He said, ‘Don't be no hero.’ So, I opened up the drawer and I gave him $20s, $10s, $5s, and $1s. And when I put the $1s in the window, he just snatched the stuff and ran out. So, I was kind of paranoid about working in the bank and then I came here. My last day at work, I was, my husband had died. A week after he had died, was back to work and exactly the seven days after his death, the bank got robbed. And then two days later, clean out your drawer, that's it. But I have PMA, positive mental attitude.
Cynthia: Good, I like that too.
Mary: Yep, I don't let it get me down.
Cynthia: Briefly describe your own personal political beliefs.
Mary: Well, for me, I'm a Democrat. I have voted Republican. I don't argue with people because growing up Catholic, growing up Black and Catholic is what makes me able to get along with people who think different. Because I'm not trying to convert you and I don't want you to convert me and we'll get along with that understanding. That's basically how I feel about my political beliefs.
Cynthia: As far as my beliefs, my family was Republican. But when I'm talking about politics, it's about what do I think is right? The right thing for me or for the world. I would say I'm probably more a Democrat. I really have never voted Republican. Some of the changes that were made recently with our Civil Rights have concerned me like the Roe versus Wade. I just feel like we need to be careful not to take people's rights away from them. People have fought so hard to get rights like women, Black people. We've been restricted one way or the other, the two of us, historically, about voting and politics. Restricting people's right to make choices about themselves is something I strongly believe shouldn't happen.
Mary: I had a little thing at church, and this is how I deal with people. I show the lady that I was at a function that I was asked to be on a panel with ex-Michigan governor Granholm, who she's now the U.S. Secretary of Energy. And I had a picture taken with her, and I showed it to a lady at church. I'm the only Black at my church. And I showed it to the lady, and as soon as she saw it, she looked at me and she says, ‘I like Donald Trump.’ And I looked at her and I said, ‘I don't. But I like you.’ She went like, well, you know, what can I do with that? You like him, that's fine. I still like you. And that kind of sealed the relationship of, I'm not going to let that one feature turn me against you. I'm recovering from my illness. And I had a phrase that life is like a heartbeat. It goes up and down, up and down. When it's smooth, you're dead. She gave me a t-shirt with that on there, you know?
Cynthia: She did?
Mary: Yeah. Yeah, she made this. She had, she gave me two t-shirts and she had one. So, we were supposed to wear it at church, you know, like life is like a heartbeat and she had the heart thing going up and down. And on the back, it has a flat line that says, When it's flat, you're dead. I'm trying to let people know you're okay with your opinions as long as you don't try to beat me up about mine. We don't have to be carbon copies to get along. Matter of fact, the differences is what help us stay together. It's where I'm strong, you might be weak. Where you are weak, I might be strong.
Cynthia: We need everybody.
Mary: Yes.
Cynthia: And everybody…we got to have everyone's opinion too because we can't all think alike, thank goodness either.
Mary: What are you most proud of and how would you like to be remembered?
Cynthia: I guess I'd like to be remembered as a good person that showed that they cared about all people and tried to do things to help people. I'm pretty happy about the ministry I do with the people with disabilities. I feel like I do a good job.
Mary: I'm most proud of trying to spread PMA, positive mental attitude. When I talk to people, this is the way I sum up, me. I work puzzles. You get the thousand-piece puzzle. You know what it's supposed to look like. You've worked with it. It's taken up a lot of your time, your effort. You get it all together and one piece is missing. That whole puzzle is ruined. I like to think I'm that one piece. That's me. I'm that one piece that I fill out the picture.