The Champions Who Walked Among Us- Artlcle 9 - The Conqueror

The year 1868, the month, September, and the newborn infant had chosen the twenty-second day of the month to make her entry into the world. Coming from a strict Methodist background, she was the second girl among ten children to be born in her family.  No one was no shouting, or clapping the father on the back upon her arrival. Although autumn showed itself at its finest, her birth herald out nothing special, nothing significant. She was female.

As she lay in her mother's arms, her father foresaw, neither perceived what the future held for her.  After all, females were an unclassified species with very little to offer–– except childbearing.

So, the infant grew into a young woman. She attended school. Smart, inquisitive, and bright, some thought her too bright, and they shook their heads behind her back, as they showed pity for her species. She was female.

No rack can torture me,

My soul at liberty;

Behind this mortal bone

There knits a bolder one.[1]

1884, the young woman graduated from high school. She dreamed to become a doctor.  However, this was 1884. How could a woman master medicine, if she were female and not one hundred percent human?  Besides, medical schools did not accept women.[2] Everyone knew the female skull housed a brain with extremely small capacity.

• What do you do when you are caught in a trap of ignorance?
• How do you respond to people who have already limited your capacity to evolve into your own life purpose?
• Where do you get the mental strength to stand up as your spirit is being beaten raggedly by external factors you cannot control?

Oh, the young woman. What must it have cost her to turn her back on her dream, and accept the only opportunity opened to her?  An ocean lay between the doctor title she wanted and desired, and the opportunity offered.

• The purpose of a woman's life is just the same as the purpose of a man's life; that she makes the best possible contribution to her generation[3].

You cannot prick with saw

Nor pierce with scimitar.

Two bodies therefore be.

Bind one, the other fly.[4]

Idealistic thinking from a woman gone mad or from a woman whose wisdom and discernment had opened her eyes to see the light.  On earth, in this day and time, we can only guess at the answer to the question.  Intriguing thought the woman, the same species charged to take care of the female had been bewitched by alcohol, and this woman's heart ached at the devastation she saw in the families surrounding her. She saw women suffering in her area.  She heard the beaten down cries of a species, which was trodden down by the ignorance of men. Women helplessly delivered in the hands of a demon so powerful they could only cry out and mourn, while being beaten by men whom it had under its spell.

There were no women's houses in those days––women had no wealth, no property, no rights. They were female.

1886, the two years training at the Ottawa Normal School was completed, and she turned to public teaching––the job, which would lead her to the purpose designed just for her, and the Conqueror was born.

• Here, she would become involved with the WCTU, Women's Christian Temperance Union,
• Here, she would discover her charisma to persuade people to listen and support her cause,
• Here, she would find the man that was not threaten by her intelligence and was willing to support her in her endeavours.

Her involvement in teaching would lead her down,

• A path,
• The path,
• Her path,

As she prepared to make a mighty entrance into the world.

After her marriage, the Conqueror and her husband desired to go back to their roots.  Six years of knowledge and acquired expertise had been gained in the North Dakota region, and she and her husband joined million of settlers, who headed from the western states Northward to homestead on excellent farming land in the Southern Alberta region, which was still a part of the Northwest Passage.  It was time now to put what she had learned into practice––time to turn theory into reality, time to test the strength of what she believed, time to rise up and walk.

1917, World War 1 was at its height, and the United States of America had just entered the war. The western world was hoping for an end to the brutality that had begun with the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the Austrian-Hungarian Empire.  It was also election time in the Province of Alberta and the Conqueror stood up for the challenge.  But she was female.

Who would have thought a new unknown agrarian party would win the seat?

Who would have thought,

• The woman who ran against the favored candidate,
• The woman who challenged the alcohol and cigarette producers,
• The woman who wanted to see a ban on cigarettes asserting they caused damage to people's health,
• The woman who fought for women to own property,
• The woman who would later become a part of  "The Famous Five,"
• The woman who struggled to help women who had been deserted and were penniless,

Who would have thought she would have won? She was female.

The eagle of his nest

No easier divest

And gain the sky

Thank mayest thou,[5]

See the woman as she challenged the morals, the principles, the ethics, and the laws of her society.  See her as she joined with four other women and stood up against an injustice, which had broken many women's spirits or destituted them to poverty.  See the woman as she declared,

I am a woman, and I am a person!

The Conqueror received her seat in the congress, but it was not easy. Among her fellow constituents who were the same mind as she, she was accepted immediately. For the others, it would take time, even years, before her accomplishments were acknowledged, and she would be elected posthumously into the Senate of her country.

It was 1927, and the wheels of progress concerning women in her country were turning slowly.  Women were pressed on every side.

• What do you do when the oven get hotter?
• Do you sit back and glory on what you have done?
• Or do you stand up and fight until every right and privilege has been achieved, until every door has been opened?

The Conqueror refused to rest. Instead, she threw herself wholeheartedly into a pact, which would change her country forever––The Famous Five was born.  Five women struggled and united together for two years to win their cause, and in 1929, women were finally acknowledged as human beings,  as persons, who could also take a seat in a political office, who could also inherit one third of their husband's property upon their husband's death.

Except thyself may be

Thine enemy;

Captivity is consciousness,

So's liberty.[6]

July 10, 1931, a summer's day in that great country. As the Conqueror got up, she looked back and rejoiced over sixty-three years of life. She checked off her checklist in her mind,

1. Reached out to others – yes,  taught school and educated women,
2. Changed Society – yes, was the first woman to take a seat in a Canadian Parliament under British rule,
3. Set a Standard – yes, joined together with four other women and settle the humanity of women in my country,
4. Maintained Principles and Beliefs – yes, still think alcohol and cigarettes are hazardous to the health of all human beings.

Breathing a large sigh of relief, she said to herself, it is finished. It's time to go home.

Can't you see her, people? The Conqueror had fought and won. The Conqueror was preparing to take her flight. She had heard the whistle blow, and The Conqueror Walked On!

Louise Crummy Mckinney, The Conqueror,  Walked On! She spread her wings like an eagle, and she took her flight.

She Walked On, People, She Walked On!

The woman who helped insure the humanity of women in the history of Canada laid down her mantel and Walked On!

Walk On all you weary women who are weighed down by a burden, Walk On!

Walk On, I say, Walk On!

01 Walk On

Ciao,

Pat Garcia

---

[1] No Rack Can Torture Me, Emily Dickinson, THE MENTOR BOOK OF MAJOR AMERICAN POETS, Edited by Oscar Williams and Edwin Honig. 1962

[2] Louise Mckinney, Elections Canada's Electoral Insight Magazine, Co Editor, Wayne Brown. http://www.gettingtothegate.com/vp.php?pid=17&lid=1

[3] Governor General's Awards in Commemoration of the Persons Case, The "Famous Five" and the Persons Case, http://www.swc-cfc.gc.ca/dates/gg/case-affaire-eng.html

[4] No Rack Can Torture Me, Emily Dickinson, THE MENTOR BOOK OF MAJOR AMERICAN POETS, Edited by Oscar Williams and Edwin Honig. 1962

[5] No Rack Can Torture Me, Emily Dickinson, THE MENTOR BOOK OF MAJOR AMERICAN POETS, Edited by Oscar Williams and Edwin Honig. 1962

[6] No Rack Can Torture Me, Emily Dickinson, THE MENTOR BOOK OF MAJOR AMERICAN POETS, Edited by Oscar Williams and Edwin Honig. 1962

The Champions Who Walked Among Us - Article 7 - The Ambassador

She was twelve years of age as she was forcefully separated from her family. Before her capture, she had awoken and, looking toward the heavens, had admired the clearness of the sky, and the beauty of the clouds.  There was no place as beautiful as where she was born––a dreamer, still living in her childhood fantasies, where a world of innocence, power, and domination did not exist.  The mountains, the trails and the territory where she lived were her home, and she knew them almost as good as her brother.  Had she not roamed through the caves, even though she was verging on the brink of maturity to become a woman?

She was away from the camp with her girlfriends as she heard mighty noises that awaken her curiosity. Women screaming, grunts coming from men who were caught unaware, and children crying as their mothers lay lifeless beside them. Something was wrong.  Suddenly a rope, thrown over her head entwined her body, and she was caught in a grip that burned through her tender skin.

• How do you deal with involuntary imprisonment?
• How do you react to being snatched away from the only existence you had ever known?
• How do you rationalize going from freedom to slavery within a matter of hours?
• How do you cope with the death of your mother, father, sister and brother and all of your friends?

Overnight, the twelve year old was no longer a playful innocence little girl, she had become a slave and was expected to serve her masters, and do what she was told. She no longer had the right to be married to one of her tribesman; she no longer had the  privileges that were awarded to the women of her own tribe.

Let there be peace on earth

And let it begin with me.

Let there be peace on earth

The peace that was meant to be.

With God as our father

Sisters all are we.

Let me walk with my sister

In perfect harmony.[1]

At the age of fifteen, the time had come. From nobility to a slave, to a bet in a poker game, this teenage girl was given away to the man who won the game. One didn't think at all about her feelings. She was not asked. Choice did not find its way into her life. On her wedding night, there were no complaints about having a headache or not feeling well. Fear of being touched was a luxury that was not awarded to her, and so the young girl became the bride out of obedience and fear.

• What would you have done if you were forced to marry someone who had won you in a poker game?
• How would you have reacted to the insensitivity that her body must have tolerated as she lay there waiting for every thing to  be over with soon?

Let peace begin with me

Let this be the moment now.

With every step I take

Let this be my solemn vow.

To take each moment

And live each moment

With peace eternally.

Let there be peace on earth,

And let it begin with me[2].

She was seventeen when the baby came. Believing she would never see her tribe again; believing all of her family had been killed, she did what most women would have done––made the best of a situation in which she had no control.

She had no idea that she had not yet met her destiny. If someone would have told her  she would see her brother again; if someone would have explained to her she would become the first woman Ambassador  for a group of men who were on a mission to discover the Northwest Passage; if someone had told her, at the age of twelve,  she  would be the person who made the difference, the person who would practically guarantee the success of the mission, this young girl would not have believed them.  Her head was filled with dreams, dreams of bringing a great warrior in the world. The seed that would make her an Ambassador  laid in incubation, deep within her soul.

Let peace begin with me

Let this be the moment now.

With every step I take

Let this be my solemn vow.

To take each moment

And live each moment

In peace eternally.

Let there be peace on earth

And let it begin with me.[3]

She was the pioneer, the boat pusher, the Ambassador. Captain William Clark  wrote in his journal, "The Indian woman confirmed those people of our friendly intentions, as no woman ever accompanies a war party of Indians in this quarter," and, "the wife of Shabono our interpeter we find reconsiles all the Indians, as to our friendly intentions. A woman with a party of men is a token of peace."[4]

It was the year of 1812, and a fever had broken out in the fort.  The Ambassador took ill.

She was now twenty-five years old and had given life to a little girl who was a little more than a year old, and  the putrid fever spreading in the fort sucked away her energy.   The Ambassador was tired.  It was time for her to Walk On.

Because she was a squaw there was no record of her birth, and no official recording was made of her death. Some say she died of the fever, others that she recovered and moved on. Tales circulate, but no knows for sure. 

  

Let there be peace on earth

And let it begin with me.

Let there be peace on earth

The peace that was meant to be.

With god as our father

Sisters all are we.

Let me walk with my sister

In perfect harmony.[5]

The woman who had accompanied Meriwether Lewis and William Clark on their journey to discover the Northwest Passage; the woman who had been enslaved at the age of twelve and deported far away from her own people, her own native language; the woman who was named Sacagawea, meaning the boat pusher, and had been waged as a bet in a poker game, the woman who had been designated as the Ambassador Walked On!

Sacagawea Walked On, I say, She Walked On!

She laid down her mantel and took her flight.  The first woman who saw the Northwest Passage and negotiated agreements with the Indians on Lewis and Clark's famous expedition Walked On!

Walk On, My Sisters,

Wherever you may be,

Whatever you may be facing,

Walk On, I say, Walk On!

Ciao,

Pat Garcia

Song- Walk On by Kellie Coffey - Link below. Sit back and enjoy!

1. 01 Walk On  (Permission requested) http://www.kelliecoffey.com/index.asp

---

[1] Vince Gill. 1993. MCA Nashville Records. http://www.lyricsmode.com/lyrics/v/vince_gill/let_there_be_peace_on_earth.html

[2] Vince Gill, 1993. MCA Nashville Records. http://www.lyricsmode.com/lyrics/v/vince_gill/let_there_be_peace_on_earth.html

[3] Vince Gill, 1993. MCA Nashville Records. http://www.lyricsmode.com/lyrics/v/vince_gill/let_there_be_peace_on_earth.html

[4] Wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sacagawea (English Language from Clark left as it was written)

[5] Vince Gill. 1993. MCA Nashville. http://www.lyricsmode.com/lyrics/v/vince_gill/let_there_be_peace_on_earth.html

Walk On by Kellie Coffey

New Improvements Coming on My Blog, Walk On!

One of my greatest  joys has been watching my blog, Walk On, grow.  It is a blog, which reaches out to the past and connects it to the present, as we look forward  to the future.  I am a firm believer that nothing on this earth is new. What we discover, create, or develop  started somewhere in the past.

It is true, whether we want to accept it or not that we are connected to each other.   None of us live on a lonely island by ourselves. Progress, today, is the result of  what  people in the past have started or completed.  Would we have light bulbs,  if Edison had not been a great researcher, or would we have airplanes, if  the Wright brothers had not researched what others considered as impossible, or would women's rights have come in 1920, if Abigail Adams had not made a plea to her husband for the rights of women and the Afro-Americans, or would women even be in Politics, if Sojourner Truth had not stood before an Ohio State Congress and gave her famous speech, Ain't I A Woman?  Where would we all be if the men and women of the past had not  stepped up courageously and struggled to make a difference.

I know there are many men who made contributions to our world, and yet they remain  unknown,  but I have chosen to look at the women who were champions and walked among us––women, who were  unsung heroes. Thus, you will notice some changes in blog design and content.  I am introducing the first change, today.

Because of my specific interest in women who have made a difference in this world,  I have been searching for the suitable song that speaks out encouragement and supports my  heartfelt cry to all women, who are in the process of changing their lives, to Walk On.  The song that I found speaks to my heart. It is sung by Kellie Coffey.  She does a beautiful job of challenging all of us to Walk On!

The song will be posted  at the end of each blog posting to encourage you to keep going, and I sincerely hope it gives you as much courage as it gives me.

Walk On, My Sisters, I say Walk On!

Ciao,

Pat Garcia

Walk On by Kellie Coffey - Permission requested on 28 June 2012. From the album Walk On by Kellie Coffey

The Champions Who Walked Among Us - Article 6 - The Bumblebee

Looking out of her window, the streets were filled with children playing, at the age of seven that was the highest priority for most children. They were having fun, and her heart yearned to be among them. As she turned to look at the kitchen clock, the hand of the clock moved to quarter past four, and she knew she must run, if she wanted to reach the stores before they closed.  After all, the shopping had to be done, and her mother depended on her, there was no one else who could do it?

Dreams, dreams, dreams of helping others, of taking care of the weak, of ministering to people whose bodies were riddled with disease, helped her to keep going. The fact that this desire originated out of a family situation, which forced her to become an adult before her time, did not make her bitter or resign her to an impoverish life based on her environment.   No,__ while other girls were being daddy's little girl, she joyfully became the little girl who was turned into a woman to become daddy's nurse.

• How do you return to a child the childhood it has lost?
• How do you explain that a debilitating  sickness has infiltrated the family, and every one must bring forth a sacrifice?
• How do you comfort the little girl that desires to be like the other kids, but instead must take the world upon her shoulders?

Tired and weary, yet full of dreams, the girl looked towards the future and saw hope and a brighter day, and she dreamed by training her mind to see what others could not see.

Brought up in a home where the word, impossible, was forbidden, she lived with her mother who was the perfect example of a woman that demonstrated strength, a woman who worked long, hard hours from 5 AM in the morning until 9 PM at night.

A few years later, this girl, who had now evolved into a young woman, had completed her high school diploma. Inoculated with the belief she could do whatever she set  her mind to do, she was among the top graduates in her class.  "You can do it," she could hear her mother say, "By golly, you can do it!" This was the song that had been etched into the deep recesses of her mind–– this song, challenged her intellectually, strengthened her belief, and reinforced her will that she could do whatever she wanted to do.

• Don't limit yourself.  Many people limit themselves to what they think they can do. You can go as far as your mind lets you.  What you believe, remember, you can achieve.[1]

Her heart's desire was to enter into Rice Institute.  However, even in those days colleges and universities were expensive.  It was 1935, and her dream was deferred, but not forgotten.  So, she married the town's celebrity and brought three children into the world.

• For every failure there is an alternative course of action. You just have to find it. When you come to a roadblock, take a detour.[2]

1945 and the Second World War had ended.  Four hundred and four thousand and eight hundred Americans had lost their lives on the European and Asian continents.  The man she had been married to for eleven years, the one whom she had given three children, the one whom she had prayed for late in the midnight hours came back, but not as her husband. He had already given his heart to someone else, before he left for the war.

• What do you when you are betrayed?
• Who do you run to seeking solace?
• Where do you find the courage to accept a change  you did not wish for, nor desired?

Alone with three children, she had to find work. The men were returning home, and women who had once been employed due to the shortage of men at home, found themselves unemployed.

The lady was used to hard work.  Had she not started working at the age of seven?  Had she not taken on responsibilities that would make most seven year olds today cringe under the heavy load?

Her first job began as a secretary in a Baptist church when she started medical school; the deferred dream had arisen, knocking on the door of her heart, pleading to get out. It was during this period of her life, with three children to raise and take care of, when she started a second job; she became a saleswoman.  Being proficient at sales, something clicked within her, and she realized the detour she had taken looked promising, and she decided to drop out of college and began a career in sales. Having already begun to collect wisdom from the experiences she had endured so far, experiences she had attained because of her belief that all things are possible for those who believe, she embarked farther on her journey, and she tested the waters as she investigated the path  she had seen at the roadblock.

Had her mother not proven women are strong, resilient and subject to excel in anything they set their minds to do? Had her mother not confirmed caring for others has its reward? Had she not shown honesty and integrity are virtues, which blend into success?

• If you think you can, you can. And if you think you can't, you're right.
• Every silver lining has a cloud.
• A goal is like strenuous exercise – it makes you stretch.[3]

See the woman, as she continues to walk forward.  See the mistakes she made through  trial and error.  Examine her as she marches through her first marriage, finding out at after the war,  a man who had no concept of faithfulness or loyalty had cheated her on. See the woman with three children, as she lay awake in the midnight hours questioning, pondering, and seeking a way through the jungle she had found, which men dominated.

This is a Man's World, This is a Man's World, but it wouldn't be nothing without a woman or a girl, sang the soul singer, James Brown in 1966.[4]

Three years before Brown would record this song, the lady who was at the pinnacle called success, the lady who was laying the golden eggs behind the sales at World Gift Inc. was asked to take a demotion.  The Man's World she dominated could and would not tolerate a woman being at its helm.  She resigned.

• A mediocre idea that generates enthusiasm will go further than a great idea that inspires no one.[5]

Standing at another roadblock, she saw the detour.  Would she take it?  Would she step out there at forty-nine years of age and take on new challenge?   Identifying her market, and developing marketing plans, the lady, who had laid golden eggs for others, invested all she had, and began to lay golden eggs for herself.

• People fall forward to success.[6]

So, it was for her.  She fell forward to success. "Every cloud has a silver lining.  Dare to risk public criticism, and for every failure, there is an alternative course of action. You just have to find it. When you come to a roadblock, take a detour," she said.[7]

November 22, 2001, thirty-nine years after the assassination of John F. Kennedy, the Bumblebee, as she was sometime known, prepared to take her flight.  The temperature was mild in Dallas, Texas, around seventy-one degrees on her departure date.  That did not matter to the Bumblebee, though. She was ready to Walk On.  She had successfully pass through the embarrassment and feelings of rejection and failure in her first marriage; courageously rose up from the loss of her partner and second husband of one month by death; humbly forgiven those who tried to degrade her, and became the most influential woman in business in the twentieth century.

She Walked On! People, The Bumblebee Walked On! She stood up and spread her wings and began to fly into eternity.

Mary Kay Wagner Ash, The Bumblebee, the woman who said, Aerodynamically, the bumblebee shouldn't be able to fly, but the bumblebee doesn't know it so it goes on flying anyway,[8] Walked On!

Walk On! My sisters, all you who have a dream!

Walk On! From whatever nation you come from,

Walk On! Regardless of your native tongue,

Walk On! Though the color of your skin be different

Walk On! My Sisters, I say, Walk On![9] 

Ciao,

Pat Garcia

---

[1] Brainy Quotes. 2001-2012, http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/m/mary_kay_ash.html

[2] Brainy Quotes. 2001-2012. http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/m/mary_kay_ash.html

[3] Brainy Quotes. 2001-2012. http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/m/mary_kay_ash.html

[4] James Brown and Betty Jean Newsome. 1966. It's a Man's Man's Man's World (album)

[5] Brainy Quotes, 2001-2012. http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/m/mary_kay_ash.html

[6] Brainy Quotes. 2001-2012. http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/m/mary_kay_ash.html

[7] Brainy Quotes. 2001-2012. http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/m/mary_kay_ash.html

[8] Brainy Quotes. 2001-2012. http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/m/mary_kay_ash.html

[9] Patricia Anne Pierce-garcia Schaack, (Pat Garcia). June 21, 2012.

The Champions Who Walked Among Us - Article 5 - The Banker

Work for the night is coming,

Work through the morning hours;

Work while the dew is sparkling,

Work mid springing flowers;

Work when the day grows brighter,

Work in the glowing sun;

Work, for the night is coming,

When man's work is done.[1]

1934, the Black Tuesday that had ushered in the Great Depression of 1929 was losing its speed, and the world's economy was turning around, looking upward. The GNP in the United States had risen to 7.7 per cent, and the unemployment rate had gone down from 24.9 per cent to 21.7 per cent. The road to recovery had finally begun.

It was the day of December 15, and it was unusually cold, the wind was blowing, and rain was everywhere as the wind howled at the door of the hearse that was carrying the coffin, and yet, the streets were filled with people. Schools had let their pupils out early, flags were flying at half mast, and politicians were gathering in the city to be counted as being among those who admired and honored her.

• How do you explain the success of a woman who had defied the business world and succeeded?
• What kind of answer do you give to those who ask how she managed to keep her business alive and healthy, even through the rough times of the Depression?
• How do you account for her micro-economic way of way of establishing bank accounts that paid off, instead of going under?

In retrospect, many people, on that particular day looked back at her life, and comparing it with their own lives asked themselves:

• What if?
• What would they have done?

It was July 15, 1867, and a half-breed love child of an Irishman and a freed Negro slave came into the world.  The Civil War was over.  The ratification of the fourteenth amendment took place six days before her first birthday on July 9, 1868. The first four or five years of her little world centered on her mother. After the marriage of her mother to the butler of the family she had been working for, this young girl received a last name and was now considered legitimate.

Raised by a mother who valued education and did not shun hard work, she was taught the greater good of working hard to achieve.  It was like an injection shot into her veins. If you want to be something, you have to work hard at it. So, being particularly smart in mathematics, she worked hard and was among the best in her small class of ten students at the time of her graduation.

The years rolled on and it was late in the nineteenth century.  Women were not yet allowed to vote, and women entrepreneurs were the laughing stock of the male population.  After all, everyone knew women had no sense for business and much less for business management.  However, this principle, which supported the hypothesis that women were born as the not-so-intelligent species of the world, would be irreparably damaged, a few years later, as the world moved over into the twentieth century.   The door to women in business would open-wide, as one young woman, whom they had not even speculated upon, walked through the back door.

• What do you do when someone tells you it can't be done?
• How do you react when you come up against a wall of  ignorance?

Who would dare start a bank with $9,430 dollars gathered together from members of a benevolent institution?  Who would have had the audacity to approach the board members with such a hay wired risk-taking plan and expect for it to work. After all, the purpose of the institution was to cover funeral expenses and take care of illnesses in exchange for small monthly dues.  She had a hand for taking dead organizations and breathing life back into them.  Her principle of saving and her philosophy of hard work kept her living and moving forward towards her goals.   The micro bank loans in many of the poorer countries today are based on a principle that was created by this woman.

Later on, the trials of life tested her tenacity to keep going––her ability to persevere was put into the test of fire.  It was 1907, and she fell accidentally.  That fall would bring her pain and extreme difficulty and slowly take away her body movements, until she would need a wheelchair.  However, the dream kept her alive, and the drive to succeed, the motivation to be all she could be, the belief  of working hard until her night came spurred her on to live and achieve.

A fall, which would have made many others give up, endowed her with a new name––The Lame Lioness. The ferociousness of her business skills compared her to a lioness that protects her baby cubs.

She had attained her finesse in business by taking accounting and business courses at night after a hard day's work and taking care of her family. What other choice had she? But it paid off.  Nothing could stand in her way; nothing could hurt her. Invincible? No, the woman was not invincible, she was determined, determined to utilize every talent she had been given, determined to not let the wear and tear of life stop her from achieving her goals.

Work, for the night is coming,

Work in the sunny noon;

Fill brightest hours with labor,

Rest comes sure and soon.

Give every flying minute

Something to keep in store:

Work for the night is coming,

When man works no more.[2]

Her time of tribulation did not end quickly.  In 1915, tragedy tested her courage and her love of mankind once more.  Her son, Russell, accidentally shot his own father.  He thought he was a burglar who was breaking into their home.

• Would she be able to forgive her son and stand by him during the trial?

The newspapers reported how she lovingly gave him her support, forgiving and supporting him.  He was acquitted, and she accepted what her son could not accept.  Nine years later, Russell would depart this earth, and the banker, now affectionately known, as the Lame Lioness would take his wife and child into her care as a part of her extended family.

Through all that was to come the woman kept dreaming, kept moving, kept working.  By the time of the Great Depression, she was completely bound to her wheelchair.

• Who do you turn to?
• Where do you run?

While other banks were seeking governmental aid, this woman was busy putting together one of the best merger and acquisition plans for  troubled banks at that time, and she expanded her bank's capital and influence in the business world. Wall Street was stunned,  and the politicians took note of her innate ability to rescue that which others thought was hopelessly lost.  The Lame Lioness, the woman who could not walk, had brought together a bank that still exists today, the Consolidated Bank and Trust Company in Virginia.

The streets were crowded on that cold and rainy December day, the fifteenth, nineteen hundred and thirty-four.  People of all nationalities, races and cultures marched towards the Old First Baptist Church of Richmond to pay their last respect. There, she had worshipped her God, since she was a child.  There, she had received the courage to dream. There, she had trained herself, and at the age of fourteen worked faithfully and loyally in the Independent Order of St. Luke, where she had reached out to the sickly, and buried those whose families were not able to pay their burial costs.

Work, for the night is coming,

Under the sunset skies;

While their bright tints are glowing,

Work, for daylight flies.

Work till the last beam fadeth,

Fadeth to shine no more;

Work while the night is darkening,

When man's work is o'er.[3] 

She Walked On, people, She Walked On!

On December 15, 1934, Maggie Lena Walker, the Lame Lioness,

• The woman who had become the first woman President of a bank,
• The woman who had taken accounting classes at night,
• The woman who believed in working hard and persevering

had Walked On!

Walk On, All you Lame Lionesses, Walk On,

Walk On! All you who are proving that a disability does not limit the person's ability!

Walk On! I say, Walk On!

Ciao,

Pat Garcia

---

[1] Work for the Night Is Coming, Annie L. Walker, 1865, The Baptist Hymnal, Judson Press, Valley Forge, 1967.

[2] Work for the Night Is Coming, Annie L. Walker, 1865, The Baptist Hymnal, Judson Press, Valley Forge, 1967.

[3] Work for the Night Is Coming, Annie L. Walker, 1865, The Baptist Hymnal, Judson Press, Valley Forge, 1967.