Learning to read at 70, an emotional journey aided by first graders
2:40 p.m. Thursday, April 3, 2008
There's a first grader in St. Joseph his fellow students can't stop talking about nor can their teacher.
"I just love him," the teacher Mrs. Hamilton said.
And so do parents and grandparents.
"It said you better get in line and study hard," said Alfrerd Williams.
Williams heard those words inside of his head two years ago, standing outside of Mrs. Hamilton's first grade class.
Today, the 70-year-old who never learned to read has gone back to class.
"You're so smart Alferd," one student told him.
"Thanks you," he responded.
The sharecropper's son born in the 1930s earned a living for his family working in the fields. He never got the chance to go to school, so he put a promise in his mother's head: I'll one day learn how to read.
Sacrifices then and the sacrifices today have paid off. He's learning how to read.
His worn finger helps him follow the words and follow the exciting journey into a whole new world opening around him.
"He said 'do you know Ms. Hamilton that you can look up at the grocery store and there are signs that tell you what's in that row so you don't have to walk and walk.' That's the moment I knew he's going to go. I am dedicated to this guy," Hamilton said.
Williams has traveled a lot by Greyhound bus and says he never knew why passengers stood in different lines until he could read the names of the destination cities at each line.
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