Three days later my phone displayed a text message from an unfamiliar number that began with the words, “Morgan, it is Mom and we need to talk,” but instead of responding I forwarded the message to Andrew as he had instructed and returned to reading the documents that described the charitable fund.
Over the following months I met social workers, shelter coordinators, and college advisors across Massachusetts, and each conversation revealed how many young people were standing exactly where I had once stood with no guidance and very little hope.
Eventually the small fund evolved into a nonprofit organization called the Dawson Opportunity Network, which provided housing grants, therapy access, and scholarships for students whose families had disappeared when life became inconvenient.
Two years later I stood on a stage at Riverside Community College in front of twenty scholarship recipients who were holding envelopes containing full tuition awards and living stipends.
“People will underestimate you because of where you started,” I told them through the microphone, “but you have already proven that survival is not the same thing as defeat.”