Book excerpt: At the age of forty-four, my mother set out to accomplish what no other American woman of color had achieved at her ageto graduate and receive a doctorate of medicine and surgery from the Universite Lobre de Bruxelles, Belgium. She walked two and a half miles daily from the cotton fields to a one-room school that housed grades one through seven taught by one teacher. But it was her thirst of knowledge that would sustain her and carry her to a great adventure across the Atlantic. We hope that the content of these pages will inspire many other young persons to strive and become whatever they wish to become, overcoming any obstacles and defying all odds.