A Decade of Turbulence, Family Love and Basketball

As the daughter of a single mother, Ms. Francis-Hartley had witnessed the sacrifice that road demands. And for her, the separation from her partner meant financial insecurity, which she was familiar with as well.

“When I walked out, it was like, ‘no regrets,’” she said. “I struggled. Every day is hard, but no regrets.”

After the split, Ms. Francis-Hartley, who has a bachelor’s in psychology, found work through temp agencies to make ends meet during the Great Recession. She bounced around among the likes of Foot Locker, Rite Aid and Kmart, working double shifts and long hours, and often traveling from her home in the Bronx to jobs as far away as Staten Island or Brooklyn. She would return drained.

In 2015, she found her calling after starting as a paraprofessional at a Citizens of the World charter school in Brooklyn. She wanted to do more, so she scraped together $100 to take the test to earn further certification. She and her children ate Ramen noodles for the rest of the week, but the move paid off; she passed and was able to work her way up, eventually becoming dean.

“I knew that no matter what was going on in my world — still struggling, thinking ‘How is this bill going to get paid?’ — I knew that I was doing something in somebody’s life,” she said. “I knew that I was telling a kid that it’s going to be all right, and they trusted me, and they believed in me.”

Source: The New York Times

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Keywords:

Family • Love & Basketball • No Regrets (Dappy song) • Church Clothes • Psychology • Temporary work • Great Recession • Foot Locker • Rite Aid • Kmart • The Bronx • Brooklyn • Paraprofessional • Charter school • Brooklyn • Ramen •