With God and My Mother's Prayers

By Gretchen Griffith

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Description: With God at her side, her mother's prayers, and the love of friends and family surrounding her, Ernestine Paschall Shade has come a long way since the midwife who delivered her announced to her parents, “She’s not going to make it.” Over ninety years later, that once frail, four-pound baby with a sickle cell trait and a heart murmur, tells of the challenges and triumphs throughout her life. From a small village in western North Carolina to the sprawling metropolis of Los Angeles, California, Ernestine’s determination and ceaseless energy impacted children she taught, teachers she supervised, Delta “sisters” she loved, and earned her the designation, “Legacy” from her alma mater, Bennett College in Greensboro, North Carolina. This is a story of deep faith and never-ending love poured out to her family, friends, and late in life, to her long-lost childhood sweetheart.