My mom always wanted to be a lawyer like her dad, my leading grandfather. Year after year, my dad would say, “I’m sorry, but we don’t have the money for you to go to law school, maybe next year.”
My dad was a doctor, a surgeon, and his patients were fishermen and farmers for what they paid him in vegetables or fresh fish. We always had plenty to eat, but we didn’t have money for law school.
My mom had waited over eight years to go to law school, and one day she made an appointment with the dean of the local law school. The dean said, “If she can get A’s in both law classes, she will be awarded a scholarship to attend law school.”
Mom got A’s in both classes. She was willing to study hard to achieve her dream. She had gotten into Harvard Law School years before, but my parents didn’t have the money for both of them to go to school at the time.
Mom arranged her law classes so that she would be home when my older brother and I got home from elementary school. She had milk and cookies on the dining room table for my brother and me and she would join us with her coffee. We all studied together every day after school. Mom had her law books to study and my brother and I had our homework from grade school to study. If you had a question, Mom would say very gently, “How about you open your book and look for the answer?”
When I was 8 years old, I remember thinking that it didn’t feel so lonely and horrible anymore to sit and do our homework because mom was there with us doing her homework too. We worked together for three years until Mom finished law school at the top of her class.
My mom, Romayne Leader Frank, was one of the first women to graduate from the Law School of the College of William & Mary Law School. She graduated at the top of her class. She practiced family law and real estate law for 38 years helping others.
Strong Lessons Learned: My mom dreamed of being a lawyer and even though she didn’t have money for law school, she found a way to make her dream come true. She was willing to study hard to prove that she was worthy of a law scholarship.
My mom believed in education and since she sat down to do her homework, we did ours too! The simple fact that mom was there encouraged you to do your best because you knew that mom was doing the best that she could.
My mom taught us to never give up on your dream, whether it’s becoming a lawyer or inspiring your kids to do their homework. Mom taught us to keep searching and thinking and you will find a way to solve your problems and if you want something bad enough you will be willing to study and work hard enough to get it.
Mom was our role model. She was willing to lead us by example and show us how to study, how to learn, how to think, and how to reason about our problems.
My mom never gave up on anything and neither should you!