National Public Radio ran a story today that got my full attention. The story is about a blended African American family in Aberdeen, Maryland that has had more than their share of hard knocks and has survived and is making do through focused love and a get-and-give-back way of thinking. This is not just a hard-luck story with a message that reinforces someone's hard-work ethic or another story about Black despair. The people at the heart of this story are keyed to the task of maintaining their relationships with one another and with those around them. This necessarily involves a heightened sense of community and justice. And I think that it takes great faith to do what they're doing every day.
For me, it is not that these people are extraordinary, although I'm sure that they are, but that their story is shared by so many people to one degree or another and that they represent us, Black and white working-class people, so well.
This story takes seven minutes to listen to. This might be the best thing that you're going to hear today. The Ferrens family and radio host Rachel Martin and reporter Alana Wise made this story work.
Here is the beginning of NPR's transcript of the story:
High inflation, the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, grown children moving back home - issues that remind us how for all the ways that we're different, Americans have a lot in common right now. Today, NPR's Alana Wise reports on how one Black family keeps perspective and thrives during these times.(SOUNDBITE OF DOG BARKING)
TYRONE FERRENS: Shut up, shut up.
ALANA WISE, BYLINE: A fluffy white handful of a dog greets visitors at the Ferrens house.
T FERRENS: This is the only biological child we have together. His name is Ashe Ferrens.
WISE: Tyrone Ferrens and his family are a tightly knit blended group. Between Ferrens and his wife, Michele, the family has six children.
T FERRENS: I have two, and my wife has four. And so we're like the real-life Brady Bunch.
WISE: Since the start of the pandemic, two of the couple's adult children have returned home. The children saw their finances stunted by the pandemic while it energized their parents' professional growth. Michele had been a retired respiratory therapist. When the pandemic hit, she found her expertise in high demand.
MICHELE FERRENS: They were offering large amounts of money for people to come to these hospitals, but it was out of necessity.
WISE: But the money alone wasn't enough to put Michele in harm's way.
M FERRENS: You have to believe in something. You have to have a love for it and a heart for people to do it. It's not money that gets you to go and do things.
Pick up the rest here.
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