“I was working as a school safety officer when I met her. She was a teacher. But she kept working her way up. She became a principal. She went to work in the central office. She got her doctorate. Eventually she became the highest-ranking black woman in New York education. She was always taking that next step. I was working as a custodian when we got married. She was making five times more than me. It bothered me at first. It took some counseling to convince me that she hadn’t ‘settled’ for me. I’d been raised on the idea that the man was supposed to provide. But eventually I came around to the idea that money wasn’t the only way to provide. I could support her by doing chores, or taking the kids to school, or picking her up from the airport. Her work benefited all of us, so I could help provide by making her job easier. And eventually she inspired me to want more for myself. She’s the one that convinced me to go back to college.”
