My mom had a life before me (obviously). She was born in Fort Fairfield, Maine just like I would be twenty years later. She loved reading, and passed that love on to me and my daughter Lena. She loved roller skating, flirting, and chasing boys. She knew how to type and speed read. Her work after high school included nursing home assistant, harvester worker, short order cook, and a potatoe factory worker at McCain’s Potatoe Plant. I don’t know if my mother ever considered higher education. I believed her to be quite intelligent and maybe it is because of all the books she read. I often wonder what her life would have looked like if she had the opportunity to go to college.