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Jolene McGee, 37, said going to college was something she always wanted, but life got in the way. Thankfully, there were no permanent roadblocks, but enough obstacles to delay her education to the point in her life that she was 30 years old and the mother of four when she finally enrolled at Georgia Gwinnett College (GGC).

People might be surprised to hear she doesn’t view the extra years as a burden. If anything, she said the joys and heartaches she lived through during that time forged her into a more prepared student.

Born in Queens, New York, McGee moved to Georgia with her mother, Joyce Murphy, a mail handler for the USPS, and her father, Arthur Lee, a construction worker and security guard, when she was in elementary school. She graduated from Phoenix High School in Lawrenceville, in 2003. Her father passed away from kidney failure that same year, leaving her with a full plate and a heavy heart right out of the gate into adulthood.

She went straight to work to make ends meet and worked nonstop in a series of jobs for the next 12 years, including at a USPS distribution center, as a teaching assistant at daycare centers, as a retail worker, and as a certified nursing assistant. In 2015, she finally eked out enough breathing room to get accepted into the Georgia State University associate program.

“My mother was so proud because she saw me working multiple full-time service jobs to make ends meet and she just wanted a better life for me,” said McGee. “But in November 2015, she was diagnosed with stage three lung cancer.”

McGee put her college education on hold once more and dedicated herself to caring for her mother. McGee moved her mother into her home, where she could more easily be her caretaker. The cancer rapidly spread throughout her mother’s body and, inevitably, into her brain. Joyce Murphy passed away in January 2017, leaving a deep river of emotion in her wake.

“I was the only one who could take care of her, and when she died, I felt like I died with her,” said McGee. “I believe a part of me did die. I suffered from anxiety and depression and still do. I lost faith in myself and the world. It took me a few years to find the courage to become a part of society again.”

Her mother had always wanted McGee to finish college. That wish and a last promise to her mother drove McGee to return to college.

“She knew how much getting a degree meant to me, and I never told her that it broke my heart to drop out again, but I think she knew,” said McGee. “As much as I didn't want to make her feel like a burden, I think she felt it, just a little. She got so bad that they had to admit her into a hospice for pain management. She was in an induced coma, so she couldn't communicate. But they say when you are dying, your hearing is the last to go, so on her deathbed, I promised that I would finish college and go as far as I could in her honor. My father too. This bachelor’s degree is in their honor.”

McGee will receive a degree in human services with a concentration in social work, becoming the first person in her family to graduate from college. She said in addition to fulfilling her last promise to her mother, she sought a college degree to be a role model for her children.

“I pursued this particular field because I have experienced childhood trauma, and there wasn't anyone to advocate for my best interests. This degree allows me to advocate for families and children when they feel that the world is cruel and unjust.”

She said the thing that surprised her most about GGC was the diversity of the student body. She was expecting to be surrounded by much younger students but was happy to meet people attending from many different age groups.

McGee lives with her wife, Dee, a military veteran who owns a catering company near their home in Grayson, where they are raising their youngest two children. After graduation, she hopes to become a social worker for the Department of Veteran Affairs.

McGee will join more than 525 of her classmates at GGC’s fall commencement ceremony, scheduled for 10 a.m., Dec. 1 at Gas South Arena in Duluth. The ceremony can be viewed live at www.ggc.edu/commencement.