Wilkinsburg resident and newly-minted Pitt graduate Marie Bracy shares her story, in her own words
“An important part of life is completing things you’ve started. When you don’t complete some things in life it can be like a thorn in your side. God gave me the grace and mercy to get the thorn out of my side.
I’ve had several personal family tragedies and crises that interrupted my ability to complete my education (stepfather killed, brother murdered, and sister became ill, which required me to help raise her four children and take care of her). The Bible says, ‘In this world we will have tribulations.’
The hardest part about college was worrying about other people’s feelings about diversity. I had the challenge of ageism, I lost most of my hearing to Meniere’s disease, and I have vitiligo. I told myself, ‘It’s going to take a lot of courage to sit in a classroom full of people young enough to be your grandchildren,’ but by God’s grace I met the challenge. I took one step and God took two and my hard work paid off. I hope that I can be an example to others, that if I can do it, so can they.
When my brother was murdered, I was at Shaw University. My mother made me come home. I enrolled at Pitt but the pain was too great, plus my sister got sick. I went to school for Drafting so that I could get a job quickly to help take care of my sister’s kids, and I got a job as the first female and Black draftsperson in the Westinghouse science and research patent law department.
Before that, I was jitney driving at the old Giant Eagle in Homewood to take care of them. The male jitney drivers tried to force me out of there but I was determined to stay ‘til I got something better. When my sister’s children became grown I started my own family. I had my first son when I was 38 and my second son when I was 41. I put my children in Catholic school, and when Westinghouse was sold and I was laid off, I was offered a job at my kid’s school as a learning assistant.
When my children got older, my mother got Alzheimer’s, so I had to end my job at the school to take care of her with the help of my husband until she passed. I started losing my pigment at this time, then I got Meniere’s.
In 2006, I got my Associate’s from CCAC, then I got sick (a virus in my heart muscle).
The doctors said I was a miracle.
I started losing my hearing in 2010. I decided to take a leap of faith in 2011 and take back what the devil stole from me. I was accepted at Pitt. Here I am today, can’t hear good, but in good health, 70 and not on any medication. I got my degree from Pitt. How you like me now!
God is good.”
—Marie Bracy, as told to the New Pittsburgh Courier
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