Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, May 7, 1994 TAG: 9405090141
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MELISSA DeVAUGHN STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RADFORD LENGTH: Medium
And when Sherman Witcher lost his job at a DuPont plant seven months after Terri started school in the winter of 1989, they told themselves things would be OK. They had a baby daughter to feed and a farm to run, but they were determined to get by.
When the farming business failed and another child was on the way, the couple found themselves bankrupt. Still, they didn't give up hope.
All of their faith and determination will pay off today, when 29-year-old Terri Witcher graduates from Radford University with a degree in interdisciplinary studies. In the fall, she'll start teaching in Franklin County.
"I sort of looked at [college] as something I had to do and something I really wanted to do," she said this week during a party celebrating her accomplishment. "So, I focused on the task at hand. If I looked at the whole big picture, I would get overwhelmed, so I just didn't let myself do that."
The 41/2-year battle to get the degree was not a pretty one. "The Lord was with us; and with his help, we made it through," said Sherman Witcher, 31.
When he lost his job at DuPont, Sherman Witcher didn't want Terri to forget her goal.
"Terri has a big heart, and she wanted to contribute to the education of children ... to make a difference and do something good," he said. "I didn't want her out there working a $4-an-hour job just to get by. She's got more than that to give."
So it was Sherman who watched their daughter, Destini, now 7. It was Sherman who cooked and cleaned and drove their little girl to and from school. At one time during classes, after Terri had transferred to Radford from Patrick Henry Community College, the couple made two round trips a day from Franklin County to the New River Valley. They wanted to make sure Destini and Justin, now 4, didn't come home to an empty house. The couple had only one car, which Terri Witcher said was "always breaking down."
"It was really crazy for a while," she said of the past two years at Radford. "It was taking so much time to commute that we started doing that as a family. It was our only chance to be together."
Soon after Terri started at Radford, she became pregnant with their third child, Chelsea.
"The second one was planned," she said. "[Chelsea] was an unexpected gift from God."
She managed to continue taking classes full time, while her husband tried to keep the 68-acre family farm going in Franklin County. With less and less money, and more and more debt piling up, Witcher began selling farm equipment and other machinery to keep the family going.
Finally, with no money left and no more belongings to sell without giving up the farm, they moved to Radford last fall in an attempt to at least keep one thing alive - their family.
"It was really tough up here," Sherman Witcher said. He said the cost of living is higher in Radford than in Franklin County, and there were times when his electricity bills were three times larger than they were at the farm.
Jobs were hard to find, too, he said. When he did find jobs, they often would pay only enough to keep the children in day care - up to $460 a month - with only a few dollars left over. That made it hard to justify, he said.
But Sherman Witcher said he never gave up hope.
"Everybody that touched our lives helped us so much," he said. "And we didn't even know them, they weren't even family."
The couple found a church in Radford, Sherman Witcher became fast friends with a doctor from Montgomery Regional Hospital, and Terri Witcher began co-sponsoring a Brownie Scout troop.
"There was a problem, because not all the girls could join [Brownies]," she said. "So I called the director and asked him what we could do about it, and he said 'volunteer.' So I did."
Sherman Witcher surprised his wife with a graduation party Thursday, at which the Brownie troop and several new-found friends gathered to celebrate. But they were celebrating more than completing college.
Now, the Witchers can exist as a family again. They plan to move back to Franklin County, back to their farm, their last material possession. Terri Witcher has signed a contract to teach in Franklin County, and Sherman Witcher said he will either go back to school at Patrick Henry Community College or try his hand at dairy farming.
"We've gotten through everything else OK," he said. "I'm sure we'll survive the next move."
by CNB