Gifts from Birmingham

University of Alabama at Birmingham seemed like the most improbably place to go to school.  Who would want to go to Birmingham Alabama which I associated with the deep south and racial oppression.??  Those are dangerous thoughts which tempt the universe.  So when all of the applying and interviewing was over, this was the one school that came through.  With requisite out of state tuition.  It came down to ... if you want to become an Occupational Therapist, then you have to go to Birmingham, Alabama.  So she did and made it a success.

I may never go back to Birmingham but as Dennis, Megan, Susanna and I went there to participate in the graduation ceremonies, we reflected on the really good things that came out of Birmingham.  Gifts that we could not have anticipated.

Steel City Pops - a business inspiration.  If they had never gone to Birmingham, they would never have thought to start a popsicle business.

Hammie - They got a puppy from the Humane Society in Birmingham.  Kind of a hound terrier something that somehow was a refuge from Mississippi.  That's how they got their dog Hammie!

Dan (Danno) - You never know where you will find an angel.  This middle-aged man, certainly with redneck interests, owned a laundromat in the area of student and other low income people's apartments.  He hired her to help run the laundromat, that was her student job.  He took her fishing and turkey hunting (with guns).  Helped her with her car repairs and taxes.  Generally looked out for her; that laundromat became her home base.  He attended her graduation and insisted on taking us out to breakfast.  Thanks Dan for looking after my daughter when she was in Birmingham!