ike members of a small book club, Mable Jones
and Linda Thomas sit at a table in the New
Hanover County Library, reading poetry and
discussing meanings of words such as “covert”
and “candid” in Emily Dickinson’s “May Flower.”
But there is a serious purpose to their
meeting. Jones is studying to earn her GED,
and Thomas is her tutor.
L
The Cape Fear Literacy Council brought them together about five years ago after
Jones, a grandmother, sought to earn her high school equivalency certificate. She
noticed the Wilmington independent nonprofit’s sign on her way home from work-ing
as a nanny one day and stopped.
“I felt like my car just turned in there,” Jones says during a recent tutoring session.
“I really believe this.”
Jones loved school and reading but struggled after becoming pregnant in high school.
“Being sick and going through changes that I did not understand, it led me not to go
back to day school,” Jones says. She tried night school but had trouble keeping up.
“I just decided to work to support my child. I just always kept in the back of my
mind that one day I’m going to go back,” Jones says, later adding, “Shame played a
big part of it. I didn’t really know who to go to to help with my education … but
it was a thing that I never let go of.”
“It took some courage to come back,” Thomas says to her. “You should be very
proud of that.”
Coming back was part of two goals for Jones, who has reared her birth daughter
and her adopted and foster children, and cares for her mother. She wanted to renew
her marriage vows with her husband, in part to include her children, and earn her
GED to encourage them with their education.
Some of her children had asked about her diploma because they did not see it.
“That was heartbreaking,” Jones says.
Her 20-year-old son earned his GED last year and said, “OK, Mom, what (are)
you waiting on?” Jones recalls.
Encouraging to Learn
Thomas, a self-described voracious reader, became a council volunteer tutor after
retiring to Wilmington in 2007. She previously worked as an administrator at the
International Monetary Fund in Washington, D.C.
“Reading is so important,” Thomas says. “It’s … a crime that people can’t read or
can’t read well.”
Thomas and Jones were paired up and hit it off right away. Thomas learned that Jones
loved to read the Bible, but with other books her list of favorite authors was limited.
So they went all over the map, Thomas says, reading poetry and stories by Maya
Angelou and Eudora Welty, and working on English, grammar and essay writing.
“We read everything from Shel Silverstein to Robert Frost,” Thomas says. “And
Mable loves to read. …When she reads out loud she’s got this lovely voice. You can
tell she’s got this huge pleasure in reading.”
Tutoring sessions have evolved as Jones enrolled in Cape Fear Community College’s
GED preparation program, and Thomas has continued to be a source of encouragement.
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WBM march 2013