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Page 7 A CAP - AND - BABY - GROW OCCASION Graduation ceremony arrives late for new mom
Through the years, she also patiently postponed starting a family until she had that degree in hand and a good job waiting in the wings. Worth the . . . wait! Little did she know that it would all avalanche into her lap within two short weeks of one another, almost robbing her of the chance to savor any of it. In 1997 Rochell began taking classes toward a degree in social work while working full time at the Greenville Kmart. Some semesters, when it was all she could afford, she took only a single class. And when she learned a year ago that the Kmart store was closing, she hung onto her job as long as she could, and then arranged to begin her required internship in social work. It all seemed to fall in place—right down to her pregnancy. In the spring, with a degree in sight, she and husband Brad were delighted to learn they would be parents before the year was out. Never mind that the baby was due to arrive within a week or two of graduation; they’d waited long enough while, through those intervening six years, Rochell’s sisters had among them produced four nieces and two nephews. Now it was Rochell and Brad’s turn to expand their little family. The joys of motherhood? So Rochell forged through her last semester at A&M-Commerce. Ever the pragmatist, she adopted a routine of getting up at her home between Greenville and Wolfe City in Hunt County extra early, she said, “just so I could be over with morning sickness before I got to class.” Some mornings would find her sitting alone in her pickup outside Henderson Hall where most her classes convened, still waiting for the nausea to subside. “It was hectic,” she admitted, “—getting papers done for class, doing my internship, and then going to the doctor all the time.” Perhaps it was the stress of it all, but for whatever reason, in early December Rochell’s blood pressure suddenly spiked, and the doctor decided Baby Bryant should make her arrival a little sooner than originally planned. Mother-to-be Bryant said the decision to induce labor was fine with her. For one thing, it meant she almost certainly would be able to attend commencement set for Dec. 13. Emily Elise was born Dec. 8. She was 5 pounds, 14 ounces—much of it accounted for in the bountiful cap of dark hair on her tiny head. By the Thursday prior to graduation, mother and child were home. By Friday, however, Rochell’s blood pressure was back up, and her feet were so swollen she could barely walk. She went to the doctor, who, as soon as he saw her, sent her straight to the hospital. As she sat there being checked in, she cried like a baby herself, she confessed. “They thought I had postpartum depression,” Rochell laughed. “But I didn’t. I was just mad because I knew they weren’t going to let me go.” She was right. While her fellow graduates, including several dozen friends from the social work department, donned their ceremonial gowns, she was wearing an altogether different kind of gown. While her friends were given their degrees, a thermometer was registering hers. However, after two rather tense days of round-the-clock care, she did finally get to go home. And within the week, in fact, she would have the unexpected pleasure of standing in the cap and gown she’d ordered weeks before and receiving a not-quite traditional graduation greeting from President McFarland. It happened because within a couple of days of Rochell’s release from the hospital, her mother, Georgianna Kennedy, arranged for family and friends to suspend December holiday gatherings for an afternoon and get together instead to mark a graduation. She commences across the kitchen So, on a Sunday afternoon, Rochell, at her family’s insistence, paraded somewhat shyly from the family room to the kitchen wearing her cap and gown while her loved ones hummed an enthusiastic if erratic version of “Pomp and Circumstance.” Then, to her surprise, Rochell learned that several offices at the University had conspired to bring her a bit more of the graduation experience. From the Registrar’s Office, she received the official degree cover with a copy of “Hail to Thee, Our Alma Mater” inside. From the Alumni Association, she received the same memento her fellow graduates had been given the week before: an A&M-Commerce Alumni Association license plate cover. From President McFarland she was offered a customized proclamation of congratulations. Of all those who were prevented from attending recent commencement ceremonies, he declared, she was the “mother” of all graduates. Alumni Relations ties one on And from the director of Alumni Relations, she received a personal note of congratulations—along with baby bib decorated with the University mascot and the words “Future Lion” emblazoned in blue. Emily may be just that. After her first trip to the doctor, her very next stop was the campus of Texas A&M-Commerce. The trip was not, however, to get Emily signed up for (very) early registration. Her mother simply needed to make some last-minute arrangements to document her graduation because somehow, between hospital visits, yet another piece of Bryant’s carefully laid plans had fallen into place. She was offered a job with Child Protective Services in Collin County, where she has since begun her professional career. Following her kitchen commencement, Rochell thanked family and friends and acknowledged the faculty who had helped her so much along the way. Their patience, flexibility, and understanding made her education and her new job possible, she said. While Rochell thanked everyone, her daughter gripped a graduation tassel in hands less than two weeks old and dragged it along with her as she was passed into the next set of arms. Someone remarked that it looked as if she could prove to be every bit as determined about getting a graduation tassel as her mother had been.
President greeted by Alumni at Irving Rotary
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