100 Pieces of Sun
Diary of a Potted Plant
A young boy skipping school because of a pretty girl he fancies. Two grandmothers who rule the roost. Biting a dog to make a point. _The delight of moving to a five-bedroom house from a one-bedroom apartment. A mother's sacrifice of wearing torn panty hose so her girls can wear new ones.
These stories and more make up the 100 vignettes that provide a snapshot of the author's life from her humble roots growing up in Alabama in the 1950s to the family move to Ohio, life with four sisters, her high school years and graduating from Sarah Lawrence College. Studying at the University of Ghana in West Africa her junior year made a lasting impression on longtime educator Connie Kennedy Calloway. Connie, the first in her family to have multiple college degrees, shares memories of church, battling segregation and racism, teenage parties, health challenges and the instilled values of her close-knit African-American family: responsibility, integrity, freedom, justice and Christian ideals.
100 Pieces of Sun: Diary of a Potted Plant is a humorous-and sometimes poignant- message about the ability to laugh at life even as you reach for the future. Sometimes you can anticipate life's twists and turns, especially with God's help, but sometimes you must make your own way, reaching for your heart's desire instead of watching the world go by like a simple potted plant.
AUTHOR BIO
Connie Kennedy Calloway has been an educator for more than 30 years, including serving as superintendent of schools in three states. She earned a doctorate from Ohio University in Athens, a master's degree from Harvard University and a bachelor's degree from Sarah Lawrence College in Bronxville, New York. She is a member of Kappa Delta Pi and was one of the _ rst women inducted into Phi Delta Kappa International, Harvard Graduate School of Education.
The Alabama native has been recognized as a Crain's Business Woman, Top Ten Influential Woman of the Year and Congressional Medal recipient for National Educational Leader of the Year. Journalist Dan Rather made a documentary on her work to rebuild a large urban school system, and she presented a research paper at an international educational forum in England on changing a failing urban school district into one that had academic successes.
The new writer is passionate about her family: Sisters Mary and Myra, daughter Precious and son Sherman, as well as teaching adult Bible study, quilting, world travel, cooking, and her book club.
