Thankful Thursday: The Ladder of St. Augustine

Photo by Fred Schilling and Jasmin Flores

One of the many things that someone must do when a loved one has left their human earthly form is to go through their things to see what’s what and determine what to keep and what to let go. In the early days of doing that after my mother transitioned, I found her address book. Yes, it was before all things digital where we actually kept up with folx in an address book. If you look long and hard enough, someone in your family has one, too.

It was comforting to see her handwriting and alarming to see how many places I had lived since graduating from college! She had run out of space for her only daughter and had actually taken to erasing my old addresses and loading in new ones.

In the back of her address book was a 3” x 5” notecard with what I thought was a quote. Both my Mother and Father were often called upon to give speeches and made magical use of notecards. On this particular one were these words, “The height by great men reached and kept were not attained by sudden flight. But they, while their companions slept, were toiling upward in the night.” There was no attribution.

These words were an appropriate description of my Mother. Being described as a hard worker doesn’t truly do her justice. She was a registered nurse by training who rose to become the Vice President of Operations at the regional hospital serving our hometown before earning her Master’s degree. There were times when she worked 2 jobs to ensure that my 2 brothers and I had all that we needed and more than we wanted. A widow, her efforts were always focused on making sure our paths were as unobstructed as possible. As a result, she was not tolerant of excuses as to why we were not doing the very best we could.

Over the many years since I found that card, I have referred to it many times. In part in remembrance of my Mother and to view her handwriting one more time, and in part because I have often found myself toiling upward in the night. I am trusting that my Mother has found immense satisfaction in knowing that those hard-working seeds she planted are still in play.

Taking a break from all of that toiling last Saturday, I watched a recorded episode of CBS Sunday Morning from September 1, 2024. In that episode Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson gave her first interview as the first Black woman to sit on the nation’s highest Court.

A visit from my Mother to celebrate my graduation from grad school.

Leading up to a conversation about her then new memoir called "Lovely One", she shared with "CBS Evening News" anchor and managing editor Norah O'Donnell, her favorite poem that speaks to the value of hard work. And then she read these words, “The height by great men reached and kept were not attained by sudden flight. But they, while their companions slept, were toiling upward in the night.”

Imagine my surprise.

Justice Brown shared that these words reflected how she felt growing up in high school and always imagined herself toiling upward in the night. What I learned from her is that these words are from the poem The Ladder of St. Augustine by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Who would think that a man born in 1807 in Portland, Maine would be a tie that binds 3 women 218 years later in the spirit of hope and hard work?

What I know for sure is that Justice Brown and I have a few things in common. In addition to being educated Black women, born in the United States of America, our parents were born and grew up in the segregated South. I also know for sure that it was their toiling upward in the night that lit the path for she and I to do the same.

In this Women’s History month, I send gratitude to my Mother for her toiling and so much more; and to Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson for closing the loop on a poem that has inspired both of us for decades.

Thank you, Mom, I love you and miss you. Thank you, Justice Jackson. And thank you, Mr. Longfellow.