77-year-old Forsyth Tech graduate overcomes obstacles to teach a new generation
Mary Alice Coleman has a love affair with learning. She's also an overcomer.
Last week, at the age of 77, she was the oldest Forsyth Tech graduate in the Class of 2019.
Coleman was a 31-year-old divorced mother of nine children and living on welfare when she decided to go back to school.
"I was going up the hill one day and this drunk passed me and he heard me say ‘Lord have mercy. Will I ever make it?’ and he said, “Yeah, you gone make it, baby.” So I said, 'Now that was the Holy Spirit.' The Holy Spirit gave me a little 'umph' and I went on."
Coleman earned her GED and then went on to get an associate degree in nursing before enrolling at Howard University in Washington D.C.
She went on to work in hospitals and became a nursing supervisor.
When Coleman was 59, she was driving to work when she was struck by a drunk driver. Her world was turned upside down.
She spent three months in the hospital battling injuries, infections and a new normal.
She learned how to walk again and she found new strength and another career as an early education teacher.
It's a dream job for her as a mother to 12 children, grandmother of 35 and a great grandmother of eight.
Coleman said her goal today at 77 is the same as it was almost 50 years ago: to inspire her children and help others.
"I wanted to leave a legacy for them as well as other people," she said. "I feel that God don’t just put us on this earth to be blessing clocks. I feel that we are supposed to serve and also bless others."