They All Just Went Away By Joyce Summary

As a child growing up, Joyce watches her mother suffer as a single parent, resulting from her lack of education, abuse, and mistreatment. It brought tears to Joyce’s eyes when she asked questions about school, that her mother had no idea how to answer. Whenever the two would go to the store, someone would have to assist them with choosing items, and counting money. She would hear people whispering terrible things about her mother such as, “That lady does not know how to count, or “She is stupid.” Even calling her, “Dumb and slow.” Sometimes she was embarrassed to be seen with her mother, and would become upset. Joyce has one brother and two sisters, who were illiterate as well. Angela, her oldest sister, functions on a fourth grade level
Cole’s house, she saw a beautiful orange fan on top of the ceiling. She saw magnificent pictures on her wall of Maya Angelou, Langston Hughes, Abraham Lincoln, and President Barack Obama. Ms. Cole said, “Have a seat.” While she sat; she was greeted by her cat Sally. Sally is beautiful with the colors of white and brown fur. “Okay, Joyce let’s get started, I am going to give you a copy of the alphabet, and I want you to recite the letters,” said Mrs. Cole. Joyce recited the alphabet successfully. After three hours of practice, she had mastered all of the alphabet. She also learned how to write and form sentences as well. “I see that you’re a quick learner,” said Ms. Cole. As the weeks passed Joyce got better with her reading and writing. Ms. Cole gave Joyce a book to read for two weeks. After reading the book, Ms. Cole gave Joyce a quiz, which she made a seventy five percent on. Ms. Cole said, “A seventy five percent is ok, but a ninety percent is even better.” Each week Ms. Cole continued to give Joyce quizzes on books that she assigned her to read and her quiz scores continuously increased. Within six months, Joyce’s grades improved in school and she finished the 6th grade with three C’s and one B. Ms. Johnson was impressed by her improvement, encouraging Joyce to keep up the good