2016-11 True Life Story: Creative Dreamer - Dr. Dorothy Brown
[The other day, I was reading Dr. Norman Vincent Peale's book, POWER OF THE PLUS FACTOR. I read: "There is a power within you that can revolutionize your life. I call it the Plus Factor... The Plus Factor makes its appearance in a person's life in proportion as that person is in harmony with God and His universal laws... The world has always been full of dramatic examples of what can happen when one determined man or woman locks his or her mind around a dream and lets the Plus Factor begin to come through.
There followed, true stories of such dreamers, especially one orphan black child, Dorothy Brown who dreamt of becoming a doctor and serving humanity, and another, a Palestine youth, Musa Alami, who dreamt of bringing out underground water in the Judean desert and making it bloom. I shall share these inspiring true life stories in this post and in the next.]
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| Dr Dorothy Brown [1919-2004] |
Dorothy Lavinia Brown [1919- 2004], also known as Dr. D was a pioneering African-American, Surgeon, Legislator and Teacher. She was the first female surgeon of
African-American ancestry from the South.
She was also the first African American to serve in the Tennessee
General Assembly having been elected to the Tennessee House of Represen-tatives. She was the recepient of the Carnegie Foundation's Humanitarian Award in 1993 and the prestigeous Horatio Alger Award in 1994.
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Let us hear the story of Dr. D, in the gripping words of Dr Norman Vincent Peale. "A dream once came to a little black child living in an orphanage in Troy, New York. Her name was Dorothy Brown. When Dorothy was five years old, she was taken to a hospital for a tonsillectomy. Most youngsters would have been frightened or at least apprehensive but Dorothy was not.
She was fascinated by the wondrous world of medicine in which she found herself. People helping others by relieving pain, setting broken bones, curing diseases. Then and there, Dorothy decided that someday she would be part of that world. She was only five years old, but she set a goal for herself. Eventually she would become a pioneering doctor!
It was a dream that seemed absolutely hopeless. Born out of a wedlock, she had been placed in the orphanage because her mother could not afford to keep her. When she reached the age when other children enter high school, she would have to go to work. At the age of 14, Dorothy went to work as a maid, earning two dollars a day.
There were many books in her employer's home, and Dorothy was allowed to read them. In two years, she saved $500 and decided to register for high school. When the registrar asked for her home address, she had to admit that she had no home and no address. But when a person has the aura of the Plus Factor about her, other people step forward to help.
The Principal of the high school listened to Dorothy's story and found a couple who agreed to take her in as a boarder. When she graduated from the high school, she went back to being a maid, in order to earn money for college study.
At the wages, then being paid, Dorothy figured it would take her eleven years to go for collegiate study. But her faith in her dream never faltered. Every night she prayed to God to help her turn it into reality. She worked extra hours. She took on extra jobs.
One of her employers, hearing her talk of becoming a doctor, told her of a scholarship being offered by a Methodist College in North Carolina. She applied for that scholarship and won it. She took all the science and premedical courses that were offered. But when she finally graduated, there was no money left for the medical school.
The onset of Word War II caused a shortage of manpower, and the army turned to women to work as inspectors in ordnance depots. Dorothy joined and in two years saved $2000. She entered Meharry Medical College in Nashville, Tennessee. When here funds ran out, friends came to her aid. And the day finally came when the friendless little waif from the orphanage in Troy, was a doctor at last.
What does Dr Dorothy Brown herself think about all this? She believes that just as God gives each one of us our special talent, so He gives us dreams to make us aware of that talent."It does not matter, how far-fetched or unattainable the dream may seem. If we remain steadfast, if we have enough faith in God and in ourselves to go to work and stay at work trying to make the dream come true, then God puts into our lives the people who, out of their love for Him and for us, will do for us what we cannot do for ourselves."
She was fascinated by the wondrous world of medicine in which she found herself. People helping others by relieving pain, setting broken bones, curing diseases. Then and there, Dorothy decided that someday she would be part of that world. She was only five years old, but she set a goal for herself. Eventually she would become a pioneering doctor!
It was a dream that seemed absolutely hopeless. Born out of a wedlock, she had been placed in the orphanage because her mother could not afford to keep her. When she reached the age when other children enter high school, she would have to go to work. At the age of 14, Dorothy went to work as a maid, earning two dollars a day.
There were many books in her employer's home, and Dorothy was allowed to read them. In two years, she saved $500 and decided to register for high school. When the registrar asked for her home address, she had to admit that she had no home and no address. But when a person has the aura of the Plus Factor about her, other people step forward to help.
The Principal of the high school listened to Dorothy's story and found a couple who agreed to take her in as a boarder. When she graduated from the high school, she went back to being a maid, in order to earn money for college study.
At the wages, then being paid, Dorothy figured it would take her eleven years to go for collegiate study. But her faith in her dream never faltered. Every night she prayed to God to help her turn it into reality. She worked extra hours. She took on extra jobs.
One of her employers, hearing her talk of becoming a doctor, told her of a scholarship being offered by a Methodist College in North Carolina. She applied for that scholarship and won it. She took all the science and premedical courses that were offered. But when she finally graduated, there was no money left for the medical school.
The onset of Word War II caused a shortage of manpower, and the army turned to women to work as inspectors in ordnance depots. Dorothy joined and in two years saved $2000. She entered Meharry Medical College in Nashville, Tennessee. When here funds ran out, friends came to her aid. And the day finally came when the friendless little waif from the orphanage in Troy, was a doctor at last.
What does Dr Dorothy Brown herself think about all this? She believes that just as God gives each one of us our special talent, so He gives us dreams to make us aware of that talent."It does not matter, how far-fetched or unattainable the dream may seem. If we remain steadfast, if we have enough faith in God and in ourselves to go to work and stay at work trying to make the dream come true, then God puts into our lives the people who, out of their love for Him and for us, will do for us what we cannot do for ourselves."
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