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Graduation day was a day of excitement, joy, and sorrow. The excitement and joy came from being a working mother of 3 children, finally graduating with a B.S. Degree. The sorrow was the death of a friend. After 18 months of bonding and learning to work together as a group; one of our classmates passed away. To remember him we decided to wear blue ribbons with his name "Andrew Botkin" and our group number "BS-260". I stayed up late the night before finishing the ribbons for our class. That morning, the day of graduation, we rushed around dressing children and ourselves, preparing to drive to Greenville. My mother had recommended taking her car to allow space for everyone to ride. We estimated that the drive from Oak Ridge to Greenville would take approximately 2½ hours. We also had to take into consideration that I had to be at Tusculum early for rehearsal or I could not participate in the ceremony. We loaded the car and were on our way cruising through Oak Ridge, then on to the Interstate through Knoxville on I-40. I had timed everything just perfect to allow for 30-45 minutes to find parking and situate the family once arriving in Greenville. We changed interstates to I-81 and headed towards Greenville. Everything was racing through my mind from remembering the ribbons to picking up my cap off of the living room chair. Shortly after we changed Interstates, I noticed that the car was making a slight noise. I asked my husband if could hear it. He told me that I was just nervous and he could not hear anything. Of course, my husband has a slight hearing problem and I think I know more about cars than I actually do. Once we passed the Dandridge exit, my husband noticed that the car had lost a little power and then within minutes died on the Interstate. My first thought is of the ribbons. I promised that I would make the ribbons and then bring them to graduation and where was I, stuck on the Interstate. My husband is somewhat of a mechanic and immediately was out of the car, under the hood. As he shut the hood, I could tell by the expression on his face that the car was not taking us to Greenville. He managed to start the car and we pulled off at the next exit and coasted into the Sunshine Truck Stop. I was trying not to get upset and deal with the fact that I would not get to walk across that stage, my children would not get to see their mother graduate, and the rest of my group would not have the ribbons to wear in Andy's memory. My mother, however, was not quite as calm. She immediately starting crying and saying that it was her fault that we took her car. This was one of the greatest moments in my mother's life. You see, I am an only child raised soley by my mother. She had greater aspirations for me than marrying and having children right out of high school. Finally 10 years later she was going to see me graduate from college - almost. She rushed into the truck stop with me on her heels looking for a pay phone. Surely we could rent a car and still make it in time, she thought. We called a couple of car rental places from the phone book and the closest was Budget Rentals in Knoxville or Kingsport. Both rental locations said that it would be an hour before they could have a car to us. Again I thought it was hopeless. An older gentleman, who had helped us find the phones, asked if we had any luck. Again my mother was in tears and told him that we could get a car, but we could not make it in time for me to graduate. By then, I was terribly upset and the children did not understand what was going on. They just kept saying, "I thought we were going to your graduation" and "I'm hungry". The gentleman rushed away and within minutes returned. He reached out his hand and said, "Take my car and go graduate." I was startled and said, "what, you don't understand, my graduation is in Greenville, I could not possibly take your car." Again he said, "Take my car and go, before you are late." We took the keys and my husband rushed to load the children. I asked the man on the way out the door to hold a credit card or drivers license until we returned and he refused. Again we were off to Greenville with no time to spare. When we turned off at the Greenville exit I happened to think that we didn't even know the man's name from the truck stop and had no idea where the car is registered or even to whom. I told my husband to slow down, even if we were late, that was better than being arrested for stealing a car. Who would believe that a man at a truck stop would just give a Volvo to a bunch of strangers to drive to Greenville for graduation? We pulled into the parking lot and I jumped out of the car, grabbed my cap and gown and ran to towards the gymnasium. I was not alone, a couple of others were right behind me and we actually made it with five minutes to spare. After the rehearsal, I had the opportunity to share my story with my group and pass out the ribbons. Self-consciously I had made 12 instead of 11, including Andy. Immediately I began to cry and his wife, who was part of our class, came over to me. She said "Nancy, don't cry, can't you see what has happened?" I looked at her with somewhat of a confused look on my face and said "Not really." She said, "Andy led such a good life that God granted him a favor when he got upstairs and that favor was for you to graduate today. Can't you hear him say, "Come on girl you can't go out like that."" By then the whole group was in tears. We lined up and proceeded into the gymnasium as the sound of bagpipes flooded the room. My children were standing in chairs with my husband and mother on each side. Yes, I graduated with pride, honor, and most of all faith. You see all things are possible - Set your course and sail it. After graduation we jumped in the car and headed back toward the truck stop. This was about an hour drive and we had been gone for almost 4 hours when we started back. We pulled into the truck stop expecting to meet the police or at least the gentleman anxiously awaiting our arrival. He was nowhere to be found and the sad thing is we didn't even know whom to ask for. We waited and watched and eventually he walked in the side door and the first thing he said is, "You're already back?" I walked up to him and said "Thank you, you were my guardian angel today and because of you I was able to graduate." Of course I would have received my diploma regardless if I walked across the stage, but that was very important to my family. I then asked him what his name was and he said "Harley." We attempted to pay him at least the amount for a rental car, actually a little more and he refused. Finally, he did accept enough to pay for a tank of gas. As a token of my appreciation, I also gave him the tassel off of my cap again thanking him. By then the car had cooled off and we drove a little way and stopped and allowed the car to cool and repeated the process until we were home. My graduation from Tusculum College again was day of excitement; happiness and the sorrow turned to faith. |
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