Alethea Morris When Mercy Meets Forgiveness BY IAN VITA “Dad went to the store.” In any other context and in any other family such words would pass without notice. But to a young girl use to seeing her mother suffer at the hand of first words and then physical violence, the implications were more profound. “After a few weeks, I knew he wasn’t coming back.” However, as the oldest of three and wife of an executive used to moving and adept at reading and adapting to her surroundings, Alethea knew the abuse was over the day she heard those words. The daughter of college sweethearts and social workers from Mt. Vernon, NY Community service is in her blood and goes back to at least her grandmother’s community organizing in North Carolina. “She could have been mayor. They wanted her to run at least.” We were nearly half-way through our interview before Alethea mentioned her grandmother, but it’s evident her presence looms large and is still very much a part of who she is today. As the matriarch to eight children, one can’t help see some parallels between the woman who help tie her community together so many years ago to the woman who is now concentrating on changing Columbus for the better. While the desire to give back and help others is what guides Alethea now, it was not necessarily what drove her in the beginning. “I was trying to make friends!” As a spouse to a of a corporate turn-around artist, moving was always part of her life, and as the commensurate outsider, she knew what it was like to always be alone. Whether it was New York, Atlanta, Richmond, or now Columbus, Alethea has always drawn upon her community as a way to anchor her family for however short time she was there. As a new mother in Atlanta, one of her firstly forays into giving back was through African American Moms Network, a tight group of largely African American mothers Alethea formed after the birth of her first son in 1993. Drawn together by a shared need of community, the group shared “tips and ideas,” and organized a variety of event and outings during her time in Atlanta. However, most surprisingly was the criticism she received for not organizing more “African American” centric events for the group, “whatever that means.”To Alethea, it’s never been about who you are or what you look like, rather, just like her father, it’s about who you are as a person. The first time she publicly came to terms with the abuse her mother suffered was in 2012(?) when she and her husband were in the process of adopting their third child. “They wanted to know everything. My entire family history. I was in tears,” she said. Nonetheless, it allowed her to come to terms with why her father acted the way he did. “He had a vision for what he saw a successful black man was.” He could have been a lawyer, or a doctor,” and from her accounting, was clearly smart ENVISIONPROVENSUCCESS.COM | 25
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