Posts by TrailBlazersImpact
Humility and the Color Green
“You Know Where You’ve Been, But You Don’t Know Where You are Going” By Beverly Kuykendall This was expressed to me as a warning many times by my mother as I was growing up. Now that I am an adult woman, I understand its meaning. It means to be careful what you leave behind as…
Read MoreMy Love Affair Part 6. And Then There Were 3
There were a few couples besides Harry and his wife. Even the police chief’s parents were in the highrise. They were often busy with family. They were among the lucky ones, as were others in the building who had families who visited. Some others had families, but they rarely visited. It broke my heart to…
Read MoreMy Love Affair Part 5. The Women in the Building
I must also tell you about the women. There were many, and I can’t tell you all the stories, but some still stick in my mind. Nellie (a very proper lady) and I used to chat about what used to be. Many people wanted to view the highrise, and she allowed us to show her…
Read MoreMy Love Affair Part 4. The Men in the Building
Life in the highrise continued on. There were more women in the building than men. Believing in the adage that “the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach,” there were many dishes delivered throughout the building to the few men who were brave enough to live there, some surreptitiously left outside the door…
Read MoreMy Love Affair Part 3. Integrating Concord Street into the New Highrise
The next hurdle was to relocate the Concord Street residents. I thought it would be easy — the highrise was so much nicer than where they had been living. I knew they would be excited. Not so. Babe was the biggest challenge. First of all, we had no parking meters to talk to. And no liquor stores…
Read MoreMy Love Affair Part 2. The Most Exciting New Year’s Eve
As the elderly highrise building took shape and became a reality, it was time to start taking applications. I went all over town, talking up the building. At first it was slow. People were embarrassed to have to apply for low-income housing. It seemed like welfare to them. But when I got them into the…
Read MoreEp. 13. Carolyn May: This Is the Time the Torch Is Passed to a New Generation
A young, animated, Carolyn May, worked on Capitol Hill during that period of American history subsequently dubbed “the Camelot years”: that period etched in America’s memory as the magical era of the “Kennedy years”, and in the public’s memory as an era that will never be repeated.
Read MoreEPISODE 1.10 Denise Muha: Always Tell the Truth on the Hill
Congress people and staff rely on Denise as one of the most knowledgeable influencers in affordable housing. As Executive Director of the National Leased Housing Association in Washington DC, she credits her mentors for giving her an opportunity to gain credibility in the housing world. She gives advice as to how to work with Congress…
Read MoreEPISODE 1.09 Shaune Arnold: I Divorced my Parents at 14
Shaune describes her emotional escape from an abusive household into the foster care system. Through her parents’ abandonment of her through her experiences in various foster homes, one in which the girls all ganged up on her, she tells a mesmerizing story. Through sheer grit and determination, she graduated from Hastings Law School. She eventually…
Read MoreEPISODE 1.08 Cath McBreen: Overcoming Dyslexia to Become an IVF Nursing Specialist
Cath shares how she worked to overcome dyslexia to master nursing school and become a Reproductive Endrin Chronology and Reproductive Nurse as a military wife. She discusses the common ages of fertility and the options to have a baby. She provides detail on how the treatment of IVF is carried out and the earlier problems…
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