Michelle and Morgan Toole learned early that when life gives you lemons, you better learn to make lemonade.
As they were nearing the end of high school and anticipating going to college, their father, Mike Toole, died, leaving their widowed mother to figure out how to put the twins and their older sister, Jennifer, through college.
This weekend, Diane Toole sees their experience together as a life-affirming journey. Her daughters will be among the thousands to receive degrees.
The Columbia campus will award more than 3,400 baccalaureate and graduate degrees, including eight associate degrees, 2,320 baccalaureate degrees, 204 law degrees, 107 pharmacy degrees, 19 graduate certificates, 942 master’s degrees and 44 specialist degrees.
Jennifer, 22, who will receive a degree in early childhood education, has a job lined up teaching second grade at Wood Elementary School, and will be married in June.
On Thursday, Michelle, 21, participated in convocation and today will receive her degree in nursing. She already has a job lined up at Providence Hospital. Morgan will receive a degree in biology, has a job lined up, and hopes to be admitted to medical school a year from now.
As Diane and her three daughters tried to figure out how to pay the cost of three college educations, the twins learned about the Horatio Alger Foundation, a private, nonprofit foundation that gives two scholarships each year in each state. They each wrote an essay about their own experience dealing with adversity, and became South Carolina’s two winners of the Horatio Alger award. Each received $10,000 from the foundation, and went to Washington for the awards, meeting actor Tom Selleck, former Secretary of State Colin Powell, and others who help support the program.
In addition, the three girls received other scholarships and grants that kept them in school. Michelle ended up with her entire cost of college funded with grants. Morgan and Jennifer contributed substantially to their own costs. And they all worked to earn additional money.
They all lived at their West Columbia home with their mother and had side-by-side parking spaces on campus. They were close, giving each other emotional support and meeting for lunch. They were in it together.
On Thursday, Diane Toole had a very broad smile on her face as she watched Michelle in her graduation garb, laughing and celebrating with her sisters.
Morgan Toole said she briefly wanted to go to college elsewhere, perhaps to Clemson University, but decided to stay with her sisters at USC.
Kathy Miller, an adjunct teacher in the nursing school and a nurse at Providence, stopped briefly to hug Michelle, and tell her she looked forward to working with her.
“She was an extraordinary student, so extraordinary that I had to recruit her for my own hospital,” Miller said.
Michelle was part of an extraordinary class, said Dean Peggy Hewlett of the College of Nursing. About 49 percent, or 39 students, from this class of new nurses graduated with honors. Hewlett said that is a record for the school.
Diane Toole and her girls have overcome the adversity of losing their husband and their father, and the 52-year-old dental technician said she could not be happier with her children.
“It’s been a ride, a lot of fun. They’ve worked hard,” Toole said. “I’ve made it, they’ve made it. At this point, I can handle anything.”
Reach Hammond at (803) 771-8474.
RSS Feeds