Big Sister 2011 Annual Report - Big Sister Association of Greater ...

Little Sister Linda
Big Sister Marlene
My name is Linda Brennan, and I am a Little Sister. Forty years ago Big Sister
Association of Greater Boston matched me with Marlene Archer, an
educated, compassionate and extremely persevering woman who changed
the trajectory of my life.
I grew up in a four-room apartment in the Bromley-
Heath Housing Development in Jamaica Plain.
My parents were orphans – poor, physically ill
and often unable to provide me with the care and
attention I needed. I would walk to school in a
winter jacket that was too small and shoes that were
held together by adhesive
tape, so the soles would
stay intact. I felt isolated
and lonely.
That is until I was
matched with my Big
Sister Marlene. I was 11
years old. I was nervous,
excited and I had so many
unanswered questions:hh
What if she doesn’t like
me? What is she going to
be like? Will she be afraid
to come into Bromley-
Heath to meet me? What
will she say when she sees
all the empty soda bottles,
newspapers and rags in
my living room? I didn’t
know what the future
held for us that day we
first met, but what mattered most was that she
showed up.
Marlene opened my world. Over the years we
talked about teen pregnancy, politics, civil rights,
the arts, religion, women’s issues, injustice and
most of all, education. She taught me to set goals
and work hard for what I believed in—that I had the
power to make my dreams come true. The more we
talked, the bigger I dreamed. I wanted to graduate
from school and get a good job. I was 17 when I
graduated from high school and Marlene was there
by my side. With her encouragement I attended
Boston Business School and then went on to
college at Salem State. I had never known anyone
who went to college, except for Marlene.
I graduated from Salem
State and began a career
in teaching. Not long
after, with Marlene’s
continued encouragement,
I attended Boston
University and earned
a master’s degree in
Business Education. I
have held various teaching
and rehabilitation
positions, but the most
profound was at MCI
Framingham, a woman’s
prison. I was surrounded
by women who suffered
from substance abuse,
AIDS and mental illness.
There were women there
who were my classmates
as a child. We shared the
same schools, the same hardships and the same
neighborhoods. But, they did not have Marlene.
She not only changed my life, she changed my
family’s life.
Four decades after I was first matched with
Marlene, Big Sister Association continues to put
caring, supportive women in the lives of girls. Like
me, these girls will explore more, dream bigger, and
go further because someone believed in them.
Big Sister Association of Greater Boston
2010 Annual Report 33