Cleveland Has Another Angel Watching Over Her
I had the honor of working with Mary Connor during Bill Denihan’s run for Mayor of Cleveland. The Plain Dealer had a great synopsis of Mary’s quest to ensure that Cleveland’s schoolchildren had the opportunity to receive an education that would prepare them for the future. She was a tiny bit of a woman that had ten times the grit of men three times her size. In the article, The Plain Dealer cited the number of children, grandchildren and great grandchildren in Mary’s life. When we would encounter someone new, Mary would proudly recount the numbers to each new friend. And she was especially proud that nine of her children graduated from college.
The first time that Mary and I worked together we had a certain affinity for each other. The more we talked, the more we knew why. Both of us believe that education is the key to the end of poverty as we know it. She strived every day to make things better for the children of Cleveland. Mary’s house was kid central. I would pull up in front of her house and there she would be sitting like the queen she was surrounded by neighborhood children. She would shoo them off home because she had work to do and we would take off in my car to another location.
Mary was a sensible woman that told it like it was, and she didn’t care who you were she would let you know if she felt you were not “doing right” as she would phrase it. After the campaign ended, she and I would talk occasionally and she would always ask me if “I was still fighting the good fight” because she said if we don’t continue, people will lose hope and we cannot allow people to not have “hope” because hope is what keeps us going another day.
Sadly as so often happens, the time between phone calls to and from Mary lengthened and eventually ended, but whenever I talk to people about the city schools and that the children of Cleveland are our future, she immediately comes to mind. I regret that I did not have just one last chat with a dear friend. But I do know this, that she will be watching over me as I continue to move forward and she will make sure that we all continue “the good fight”.
Her family is proud of their matriarch, and rightfully so. And I am blessed as so many others in Cleveland whose lives were touched by this exceptional woman.