THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, June 5, 1994 TAG: 9406020188
SECTION: CAROLINA COAST PAGE: 37 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY PAUL SOUTH
DATELINE: 940605 LENGTH: Long
The 49-year-old woman from Stumpy Point shares a common bond with those heroes of fact and fiction.
{REST} She knows something about spitting in the face of the word ``can't.'' She knows something about overcoming obstacles, and her life has seen more than its share of rattlesnake nests.
And she has known triumph.
On May 27, Gloria Payne walked with other graduates of the College of the Albemarle's General Equivalency Diploma program at commencement exercies.
``I really can't describe the feeling that I had,'' she said of her journey across the stage. ``I felt like I might get tears in my eyes. I walked up those steps, and somebody started clapping, and then everybody started clapping. It was really something.''
Gloria Payne's story - at least on its face - is not altogether unusual. Like others across the nation, the COA's GED program is filled with adults who have realized the opportunities lost by dropping out of school at 15, 16, or 17 and want to recapture the dreams of their youth. They are education's prodigal sons and daughters.
``It takes a lot of courage and just old-fashioned John Wayne true grit for adults in general to make the decision to return to school,'' said Marietta Trainor, director of the school's GED program at the Dare County campus. ``But because of Gloria's situation, that determination has to increase tenfold.''
Payne's ``situation'' is blindness. Glaucoma, inherited from her mother, robbed Payne of her sight.
``I've been legally blind since birth, and completely blind for the last 16 or 17 years,'' she said. `` (Sighted) people don't know how to deal with it. I'll walk into a place, and people will just ignore you like you're not there. They'll ask my daughter, `What does she want?' It can be tough.''
As COA's first blind student in the GED program, school administrators did not know how to deal with their new pupil. In fact, she was turned away the first time she tried to enter the program as its first blind student. She was undaunted.
``That is not in me,'' she said of the possibility of quitting. ``I'd spent 27 years raising three kids by myself, and running a house and all that. After the kids grew up, and after my husband died, I knew I had to do something with my life. I knew there was life out there.''
Coping with the death of her husband, and rearing three children would be more than many could handle. The initial rejection by the school - because there were no facilities for blind students - may have been the final frustrating straw. But perserverance, and the willingness of the school to adapt to a student with special needs, helped make her dream a reality. And, as a result, the pupil in one sense became the teacher.
``We didn't have anything she needed,'' said Joe Turner, dean of the Dare County campus. ``Gloria helped us to determine what materials we needed to have on hand so she could get through the program.''
Once those materials were in hand, there was yet another hurdle to overcome. In March of 1993, the ``Storm of the Century'' left the entire Outer Banks under water. Payne's home in Stumpy Point on the mainland was under water as well, its contents destroyed.
``We had about $17,000 in damage, and that was just to the house. All of the contents were gone,'' she said. ``I had about six feet of water in my house.''
``The storm caused Gloria to take a delaying action,'' Trainor said of Payne's return to the program. ``She had to wait until September to start, instead of beginning in March.''
Despite the storm, and all of the other disappointments, Payne was determined to find out if there was indeed a ``life out there.'' And she got a helping hand from her family. ``When I walked across that stage, I had three hands pushing me.''
``My youngest son told me that I made him stay in school, and that I was going to stay in, too,'' she said. ``My oldest son has an 8-year-old boy. He said 'I don't want you bringing notes home from school like my son does.'''
Their support extended beyond encouragement. Her struggles with mathematics made for some interesting family evenings.
``She nearly drove us crazy,'' said daughter Myrtle. ``I was an `A' student math, and she just asked so many questions.''
But in the end, the struggles paid off. Gloria Payne has her GED, and is prepared to go into a special program in Raleigh for the visually impaired. There she'll be trained for a career in the food service industry, perhaps running a food stand.
While her eyesight is gone, her vision is intact.
``Five years from now, I'd like to have my own stand, and settled down with a home, and making a good salary,'' she said. ``I know I can do it.''
She's a member of the Lions Club, and serves on the county's Association for the Blind.
And her impact sometimes is felt beyond the campus in less visible ways.
``One night, we were at the store where I work, and a girl asked me if my Mom was my sister,'' said Myrtle. ``I told her no, it was my Mom. The girl knew that Mom was in the GED program, and said 'If she can do that, then I can stay in school.' That really makes me proud.''
And, at the Dare campus, she has opened the way for other visually-impaired students, and left a powerful legacy.
``It (the human spirit) is indomitable,'' said Turner. ``Gloria is a perfect example of that. There is an old saying that stumbling blocks for some can be stepping stones for others. Gloria has either gone around or run over those stumbling blocks, and used them as stepping stones.''
by CNB