The “All Things Basket” By Rolanda Pyle
“And we know that all things work together for good to those who love the Lord, to those who are the called according to His purpose.” (Romans 8:28 NKJV) This scripture has significant value to me because I learned throughout my life that even when we can’t see it, even when we can’t feel it, God is working it out. I’ve learned to put things I can’t understand into my “all things” basket. When I was a little girl, my mother left me and my two siblings with my father. My paternal grandmother stepped in to help my father with his three children. She was the nurturer, while my father was the provider and disciplinarian. I remember crying many days, wondering why I couldn’t have a mother in the home like all of my friends. I remember many times being embarrassed when my grandmother walked me to public school and my classmates asked, “Where is your mother? Why does your grandmother bring you to school?” It wasn’t until years after my grandmother passed that I really appreciated her sacrifice. I am grateful to her and to my father for all they did for me as a child. While in public school, one of my classmates would bully me. She would call me names such as skinny and say I had a big nose. She would then say I know why your mother left you—because you are so ugly. I would run to the bathroom and cry. 54 | M AG A ZINE NAME PAGE 54 3
Growing up, I somehow thought being cared for by my grandmother was one of the worst things that could have happened. It was not natural. It was not the way it was supposed to be. Little did I know that many years down the road, what I thought was the worst thing in my life would turn out to be the best thing in my life. After graduating from high school, I went on to college, not knowing the exact profession I should choose, but just that I wanted to help people. I eventually chose Social Work as my profession and started out as a case manager. My career took me down many paths from working in foster care to preventive services where I would help families at risk of losing their children to the system. I assumed the responsibility of recruiting and training seniors to become role models for at-risk families. I loved this job because I got to work with both seniors and children. Years later, one of my friends who knew of my work with seniors offered me a job at his place of employment—a community agency that had just received funds to start a program for grandparents raising their grandchildren. The program grew, and eventually, I was asked by the city to come and head their Grandparent Resource Center at the Department for the Aging. So I helped grandparent caregivers across the city. This program developed into a national model and the resource center was replicated. I won many awards and was asked to speak across the country at aging and child welfare conferences. In 1994, the New York Daily News named me, ‘One of the Hundred Women’ who make New York City work.
