Hundreds of Lessons
What would you do with 200 years of collective memories, 200 years of experience, of life, of lessons? When Summer Owens was presented with that scenario she knew just what to do – she wrote a book.
Her book, “100 Lessons My Centenarian Grandmas Taught Me: Two Centuries of Motherly Wisdom and Timeless Advice on Confidence, Resilience, Leadership, and Life” has just been released and shares the lessons she learned from her grandmothers, one who lived to be 102 and the other who lived to be 98 – and who died just 5 days apart. The book is divided into four sections of 25 lessons on confidence, resilience, leadership, and life. “When I started to think about it, I realized their average age was 100, and then that made me think about all the lessons I had learned from these women who had been such a huge part of my life. I couldn’t think of anyone else I knew who had the blessing of having grandmothers in their life who had lived to be 102 and 98.” Agnes Idella “Dorothy” Jones Owens (Grandma Owens) and Ocie Lee Woods Williams (Grandma Ocie) had each been the subject of previous books by Owens. “Several years ago, I was blessed to spend months talking to each of them, and published books on their individual lives. I realized there were more of their lessons, their stories I wanted to share.”
Owens says in starting to find her way through her grief in the loss of these women, whom she affectionately refers to as “my girls”, their lessons again guided her. “One of the lessons in the book, Lesson 67, talks about handling loss with strength, which was something I had seen each of them do many times in their lives. I had to demonstrate it in losing my grandmothers so close together, the biggest loss I have ever experienced. I turned my grief at losing them into the book and the scholarship to honor their long and resilient lives.”
Proceeds from this book will go to the Agnes Owens and Ocie Williams Memorial Scholarship to be awarded through Owens’ S.O. What! Foundation, the non-profit arm of her S.O. What! speaking and consulting business. The name of her business and foundation are based on another lesson she learned from her grandmothers.
“They taught me that it was normal to feel what I was feeling in a situation, but that I didn’t need to stay there, I need to say ‘Ok, so what, that happened, so what’s next’. That is sometimes difficult to do but reminds me to keep moving forward and turn adversity or disappointment around and continue to pursue my dreams and goals.”
Owens hosts events, workshops, retreats, and other opportunities to teach others how to become more confident and resilient whether they are leading a business team or working on a goal or dream in their own life. She has created programs that are now part of curriculums implemented in schools and youth programs across the country to improve literacy, increase graduation rates and post-secondary aspirations, develop resilience and life skills, and much more. Owens has just finished a curriculum based on this current book to share her grandmothers’ lessons with a even wider audience.
“One very important lesson I learned from my girls was to persevere through challenges (Lesson 4). As a resilience speaker and coach, the core of my business is demonstrating and teaching others how to persevere through their challenges. Because of my journey, learning to be resilient has been key to my survival and crucial to my success and overcoming the obstacles that teen moms face.”
Owens called on that resilience when she was faced with hosting her foundation’s annual program just a week after her Grandma Ocie’s funeral. “My S.O. What! Awards and Scholarship Soiree had been scheduled nearly a year earlier and I knew I had to go on with it, that the best way to honor them was to continue the work and the programs I had created. I was able to announce the information about their scholarship and this book at that event.”
One of the biggest lessons Owens says she learned from her grandmothers was humor. “Whenever I was with my girls we laughed a lot. Many of our photos show us with big smiles or laughing – I always had a good time with them. Both of them had numerous challenges in their lives, but they found strength in humor and never lost their ability to laugh and make others laugh as well. This book is my way of sharing my girls and all they taught me. It is a way to keep their spirits alive and to keep their wisdom in the world.”
To learn more about Owens’ business and foundation or to schedule her as a speaker/coach, visit her website at www.summerowens.com Information about the various curriculums she has developed can be found at her website or at www.thesowhatfoundation.org
To order any of Owens’ books, visit www.amazon.com or her website.