It's taken her more than eight years, but this nursing student
and single mother of three is determined to complete her degree
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| Rhonda Perkins studies for her genetics class. |
By Andrea Holyfield
Photography by Colleen Rogers
As a nontraditional student and mother of three, she knew earning a nursing degree would not be easy.
For the past eight years, Rhonda Perkins, 30, has taken at least two classes each semester and has worked part time. And she has managed to find a little tranquility through planning and preparation.
This is the story of one day in an ongoing struggle to provide a better life for her family.
6:00 am
The alarm clock goes off, but Perkins doesn't budge.
"My two oldest get up at 6 o'clock," Perkins says. "I still have a half hour to sleep."
Fifteen-year-old Rondaline and 11-year-old Samuel tiptoe around the house trying hard not to wake their mother. It doesn't work.
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| Rhonda unwraps Junior's breakfast at Child Time day care in Stow. |
"Mom, would you tell Ronnie to stop taking my stuff?" Sam says.
"Ronnie, be nice to your brother," Perkins replies from bed.
"But, mom, you didn't see what he did," Ronnie says.
"Ronnie and Sam, please stop before you wake up your brother," Perkins says.
6:20 am
Junior wakes up.
Stewart Miller Jr. is 3 years old. He walks into his mother's room with one hand tucked inside the pants of his Power Ranger pajamas.
"Mommy, I gotta go," Stewart says.
"Well, go!" Perkins replies.
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| 3-year-old Stewart Jr. reaches for his order at Burger King. Rhonda and Junior stop every morning on the way to his day care. |
6:30 am
The second alarm rings.
"I don't know why I try to sleep," Perkins says. "Sometimes they let me sleep, but usually it's like this. I don't know if they don't understand or what, but at least I don't have to get them ready anymore."
"I have to get Junior to day care by 8:30 a.m.," Perkins says.
On the way to Child Time in Stow, Perkins stops at Burger King for an order of French toast sticks, a sausage and egg croissant and a large orange juice.
"I don't have time to cook," Perkins says. "I feel bad, but the older two eat cereal or warm up a pastry. Junior and I always grab fast food. For real, girlfriend, who has time to cook?"
8:00 am
Perkins arrives back home.
"It's easier to get Junior off to school, then get ready," Perkins says. "That way he doesn't get dirty and neither do I."
Perkins uses the next 45 minutes to get dressed, gather her work, clean up and pray.
"I begin every day with a prayer," Perkins says. "Without Him I would not make it."
8:45 am
Perkins leaves for class. She has five minutes to make it to her Basic Aspects of Health Care class.
She arrives for class five minutes late.
"I'm always late. It's expected," she says.
After class, Perkins drives an hour to Stark campus, where she takes human genetics. The class wasn't offered at main campus in the fall.
"This drive should only take a half hour, but with construction sometimes it takes up to an hour and a half," Perkins says.
Noon
"I have a half hour, so I'll study for my quiz," Perkins says.
She studies for about 10 minutes. Her pager rings.
"That's my fiance reminding me to pick him up from work at 3 o'clock," she says.
1:45 pm
Class is over. Perkins is nodding off.
"I cannot be tired right now," she says. "My day is not half over."
On the way back home, Perkins' pager goes off again. "That's Stewart again. He got a ride home. Good, because I need to go to the store," she says.
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| Perkins shops for dinner at Apple's grocery store. She says she is always looking for sales to help her save money. |
2:30 pm
Perkins goes to Apples grocery store on South Water street. She shops from a list she wrote while driving back from Stark campus. She buys ground beef and a box of Thera-Flu.
"The kids love spaghetti, and Stewart has a cold," she explains.
3:30 pm
Perkins picks Junior up from Child Time.
His huge smile and waving arms indicate he is happy to see her.
"Mom, I'm hungry," Junior says.
"Did you eat your lunch?" Perkins asks.
Junior doesn't answer, so she opens his lunch box and finds a half-eaten peanut butter and jelly sandwich and a bag of carrots. She just frowns.
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| Stewart eats his dinner at the table while Perkins has hers on the couch and watches the news. |
4:30 pm
The kids demand attention while Perkins prepares dinner.
"Mom, can I go outside?" Sam asks.
"Did you finish your homework?" she asks.
"No, he didn't," Rondaline says.
"Shut up," Sam yells.
"Kids, please!" Perkins says. "We have company!"
Dinner is served.
6:30 pm
"We have dinner together every day no matter what," Perkins says. "There are so many parts of my life I cannot control. I'm always running. I'm always doing something for someone. But my kids need stability."
Dinner conversation consists of what the children did at school.
Rondaline got a detention. Sam got all his multiplication tables right, and after a lot of probing, Junior says he colored.
Perkins tells the children how much help she needs during the next couple of weeks.
"I'm really going to need your help around the house and with Junior," Perkins says. "My finals are coming up, and I'm really going to have a lot of work to do."
"We have school, too," Rondaline says.
Perkins ignores the remark. She gets up and clears the table.
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| Rhonda grates carrots to put in a salad for dinner. |
7:15 pm
The kids are allowed one hour of television before bed. Surprisingly, they don't argue over what to watch. Sam turns on Nickelodeon. The cartoon "Doug" is playing. Rondaline makes a phone call.
While they watch TV, Perkins washes dishes and cleans the kitchen until the phone rings. It's her next-door neighbor.
"Sam, can you take some sugar next door?" Perkins asks.
8:30 pm
She begins running bath water.
"The kids have to be in bed by 9:30 p.m.," Perkins says.
By 10 p.m., all three are bathed and in bed. Perkins looks exhausted.
"I'm not tired," she says. "I still have homework to do, and I have to get their stuff ready for tomorrow."
Perkins begins her homework.
She studies until 11 p.m., when her fiance calls.
"I miss him," she says. "I mean I see him every day, but we haven't been on a date since I don't know how long. Sometimes I think we argue just because I'm so tired."
12:30 am
Perkins begins ironing with low, tired eyes.
"Rondaline can iron her own stuff," she says. "But Sam needs his clothes laid out or he will go to school looking a mess."
By 1:30 a.m. Perkins is finished ironing, cleaning and studying.
"I am so tired my muscles ache," she says. "I get this way every night. I'm lucky enough to not have to work like I have in the previous semesters. This year I took out an extra loan."
But Perkins doesn't regret her decision to complete her education. She loves the example she's setting for her kids that anything is possible.
"I want them to know that there are times when nothing can stop you," Perkins says. "When you really want something as bad as I want this degree, and as bad as they want to live in a house and not Allerton, you do what it takes.
"I can honestly say that the only thing that will stop me is the Lord."
Since this story was written, Rhonda Perkins' oldest daughter, Rondaline, moved out of their Allerton apartment so that she could raise her newborn child. Rondaline now lives with her grandmother in Cleveland. Rhonda wants to be a midwife after she finishes her nursing degree.
