Pieces: The Unveiled Path of God's Plan

By Mark G. Hardy

Mark is born in the mid-1950s to a single mother in central Mississippi against formidable odds. His grandmother, Mary, loves him and raises him in the Church of God in Christ, profoundly changing his otherwise less-than-ordinary trajectory. He struggles with the teachings of the church while navigating the social constructs of coming of age in the deep South during the 1970s.

We see the intimate details of church life positively impact Mark's decisions during each step of his walk with God. He shares with us the wonders of young love juxtaposed to the horrors of cancer as it rips a loved one from his arms. Mark allows us to follow his matriculation through higher education from a college freshman to the vice presidency as love finds him once again. He permits us to peer into the inner workings of academia and lets us see many times over God's awesome power. We watch the pieces of his life come together as even his worst circumstances are transformed into ultimate victory.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Page Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: Jun 25, 2024
• ISBN: 9781646288168

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Pieces

The Unveiled Path of God's Plan

Mark G. Hardy

Copyright © 2023 Mark G. Hardy

All rights reserved

First Edition

PAGE PUBLISHING

Conneaut Lake, PA

First originally published by Page Publishing 2023

ISBN 978-1-64628-815-1 (pbk)

ISBN 978-1-64628-816-8 (digital)

Printed in the United States of America

Table of Contents

Genetic Makeup

Elementary School

Junior High School

Middle School

High School

College

Graduate School

Doctoral Studies

The Department of Biology

Selling the Home House

Marriage

Autism in the Hardy House

Desktop Computers in Biology

Moving through the Ranks

Administrative Responsibilities

Other Administrative Positions

Health Concerns in the Hardy Household

Senior-Level Administration

Health Reality Sets In

Coming Home Alone

Hardy Becomes Dean

Finding Love Again

Blended Family

The Vice Presidency

Returning to CSET

Ashville and Tennessee Southern University

The Changing Landscape

To the strong women that have impacted my life, especially my mother, Mary Sims Hardy.

Genetic Makeup

Iwas born in the Fall, the first day of November 1956. Madie Lou Sims, my birth mother, was seventeen and a high school junior. She was an independent young woman who, because she had become an unwed mother, found herself at a crossroads in her life. Madie and her mother, Mary Sims Hardy, were members of the Church of God in Christ (COGIC). Because of their faith, Madie grew up following very strict rules regarding appropriate behavioral norms. But despite the conservative teachings of the church, she didn't conform and instead participated in many social activities otherwise forbidden by her religion. She became a majorette, marched in parades with the high school band, and attended many sports activities. All this was frowned upon by the church.

Consequently, she broke many of the church's rules. Madie hid the fact she was a majorette from her mother. She wore her uniform under her regular clothes when she left the house. Her outgoing nature made her very popular with lots of schoolmates, including her boyfriend, Douglas Anderson. He was eighteen years old and a high school senior when I was born. I believed they loved each other, although that was never discussed with me. Madie couldn't graduate because of the pregnancy while my father, Douglass, was permitted to finish. But soon after he graduated, his parents sent him to the east coast for college.

Doing so almost ensured Douglas and Madie would never be together again. Madie went on to finish high school and graduate from college with a degree in nursing while Douglas finished his degree in mathematics and became a college professor. Soon after I was born, Madie was sent to San Francisco, California, to live with her aunt Julia Durham to complete her high school education. Madie's mother made all the arrangements so she could stay with Julia. I was still in the hospital when Madie left for California.

Although she had to leave me behind, Madie knew her mother would take good care of me. Young mothers often left their babies with relatives during this time because it was simply improper for a teenage mother to hang around after giving birth to a child in the mid-fifties. If she had stayed, one of the consequences would have been her being silenced and prohibited from participating in church activities, even after being subjected to coming before the church to ask for its forgiveness. Neither Madie nor her mother was going to allow that to happen.

Madie was very social and what many would call a free spirit. When she was eight years old, her father, Walter Sims, was killed in World War II. During this time, she and her now-widowed mother lived on Adele Street in Saxton, Mississippi. The government began sending Madie a monthly stipend shortly after her eighth birthday because of her father's wartime death. Consequently, Madie wore nice clothes and enjoyed many things other children around her could not. She also bought her majorette uniform without her mother knowing. Her mom wouldn't have purchased it for her because the church didn't condone it. But Madie was a nonconformist. If she wanted to do something, she found a way to do it despite what her mother or the church said.

Madie had lots of opportunities to socialize with school friends and Douglas in high school. Douglas was a hotshot basketball player at Lanier High. So it was natural for the basketball star and a majorette like Madie to hit it off. They were inseparable once they started dating. Madie told me her mother didn't teach her about sex. And this was probably true because in the 1950s parents rarely discussed the subject with their children. So with little guidance and relevant information, other than was she got from her girlfriends, she explored her sexuality, and I was conceived.

After my birth, Madie's mother, Mary, the woman I called Mama, took me home to 614 Watson Street in Saxton, as soon as I was healthy enough to leave the hospital. I had trouble digesting milk at birth. Consequently, I stayed in the hospital until that problem was resolved. Growing up, Mama and I developed a true mother-son bond. In fact, I didn't know Mama was my grandma until I was seven years old. So as you might imagine, not knowing the truth in my early years, I thought Madie was my sister.

By this time Mama was married to Bill Hardy, Madie's stepfather. Of course, when I learned Mama was really my grandma, that's when I found out Bill wasn't my birth father but my step-grandfather. But it didn't really matter. I still called him Dad when I was growing up. Mama met Dad when she was working as a candy girl at the railroad station in Saxton. It was the 1940s. Dad was a taxi driver, and it wasn't surprising Mama saw him from time to time taking soldiers to and from the train station. Dad stopped and talked with Mama occasionally. Then one fateful day he asked her if she would like a ride home. Mama said yes. They hit it off and eventually got married.

Although Dad was a taxi driver, he dreamed of owning his own business. Shortly after he and Mama were married, he went to the bank to secure a loan for a dry-cleaning business. Again, this was the mid-1940s, and it was unheard of for a colored man (as we were called back then) to even ask, let alone receive a bank loan. But for some unknown reason, Dad had favor with several influential white businessmen. And because of his relationship with these men, he got the business loan. With funds from the bank, Mama and Dad opened the dry-cleaning store, the only one of its kind in the African American community where we lived. Their business was so successful they paid off the loan in less than ten years.

Although Mama was co-owner of the cleaners, she also dreamed of having a business of her own. Every morning during the week she took me to a kindergarten owned by Ms. Youngblood before going to work. She noticed it was the only facility of its kind in the neighborhood. Seeing this, she recognized there was an opportunity for her to open another preschool one day. Mama then began saving as much money as she could to purchase a building for the school. Although Dad would be seen around the cleaners every so often, he was hardly there to manage the business. Not only that, every Friday Dad dropped by the store and took all the money out of the cash register.

Afterward, he disappeared until late Sunday night. Of course, this put a lot of stress on the marriage. But Mama decided not to divorce Dad. It was against the teachings of the church. So instead of leaving, she stayed with him. After a while Mama had this great idea. She decided to take half the money out of the register the next Friday before Dad came by. He generally came around the same time. It surprised her Dad didn't notice the difference in the amount of cash he got that day. Apparently, he never counted what he took. So each Friday after that Mama took half the money out of the register before Dad came.

Mama saved enough money in three years to start her dream business simply by putting back half the cleaner's earnings every Friday. And the beauty was she did this without Dad's knowledge. As soon as she had the funds she needed, she informed Dad one day after work, Today is my last day! Mama took the money she saved and purchased a small house located at 2146 Powers Avenue in a new Georgetown subdivision. She had enough money left over to buy a station wagon after negotiating a great deal on the house. With the vehicle, she picked up and dropped off children whose parents didn't bring them to the daycare.

After Mama purchased her building, she left the house on Watson Street and moved into the new house, leaving Dad behind. Of course, she took me along with her. Madie long since moved to San Francisco and had been gone almost three years. But Mama did her best raising me, her grandson, as her own son. She felt she hadn't done such a good job with Madie. So this was her chance to make amends. Dad moved in with us a year or so later.

The house Mama purchased was small. It only had a living room, dining, kitchen, two bedrooms, and a bath. In the beginning Mama taught the youngsters in the dining room, the largest room in the house. But as time went on, the business became so popular she expanded the house to accommodate the growing number of children. She added several rooms: one large enough to hold almost one hundred kindergarten-age children, a large walk-in closet, a restroom with two toilets, a sink with a water fountain, and a sunken den.

Although Mama only attended college two years, she used her God-given talents and became a full-fledged entrepreneur. Each child's parent was charged a manageable $5 per child per week or $20 a month. This amount allowed Mama to earn more than an average college professor's $12,500 annual salary. In fact, Mama was so successful she hired teaching assistants to help her with the youngsters, mostly young people from the neighborhood or those attending one of the local colleges.

The year was 1961, and I was five years old. Because I was born in November, I was just old enough to start first grade. Back then, you could begin elementary school at five if your birthday occurred before January 1, the year after you started school. But before I could attend, Mama and Dad had to be my legal guardians, so they adopted me. My name was Mark Gary Donnell Sims prior to the adoption. Afterward I took Dad's last name. As a result, my name was changed to Mark Gary Donnell Sims Hardy.

Mama was a very devote woman and raised me in the COGIC. She took me to church before I had any knowledge of it. My first recollection was attending Sunday school. Ms. Evelyn Mayes was my first teacher. Sunday-school classes were held in various parts of the church. After class, members assembled and reviewed the lesson of the day. Next was Sunday worship. This included prayer, singing, testimonies, and praising God for his favor upon us.

COGIC is a holiness movement of Pentecostal origin whose members praise God in the dance, speak in tongues as given by the spirit, and practice laying on of hands to heal the body of disease. All these activities occurred during the worship experience. As a result, most of the day on Sundays were spent at church. We usually stayed until two even three o'clock in the afternoon. Then we came back to church at 6:00 p.m. for youth services, followed by night worship services.

There were many young people my age and older who attended our church. Because of their presence, the long marathon services were tolerable. The children grew close, and good relationships were formed during those days. While some of these relationships still exists, many of the young people went their various ways once they were old enough to make that decision. Sadly, it is likely only about 20 percent of the children who grew up with me are still part of the COGIC family.

Elementary School

First grade was an interesting time. I'd learned nearly everything teachers taught first graders while attending Ms. Youngblood's kindergarten class. So as expected, I was very bored and unchallenged my first year attending Mary C. Jones Elementary School. On top of that, my first-grade teacher, Ms. Dorothy Slater, was a member of Mama's church (and they were good friends). First graders sat six to a table. I was told to learn how to work in groups. But because I was a talkative child and not very challenged academically, I often disrupted class, doing things unrelated to classwork. As a result, I was moved from table to table to prevent continued disruption. Mama knew about all my misbehaviors almost immediately, I believe, because of her and Ms. Slater's relationship.

The educational system during this period practiced segregation by academic ability. The school system created the following groupings: VH—very high, H—high, A—average,