Role as mother steers new grad to late career at 61

Charlene Hester must have missed F. Scott Fitzgerald's dictum that there are no second acts in American lives.

The Braddock woman will open hers when she takes the stage today at age 61 to collect a degree in elementary and special education from Carlow University in Oakland. She wants to teach special-needs children.

"I can give parents a different perspective," she said, pointing to a lifetime of experience. "I've raised a special-needs child who is independent, and I can tell them it can be done."

Her son, Robert "Tray" Hester, 30, is a self-employed photographer-videographer with autism. Charlene Hester raised him on her own after her husband died when Tray was 9.

Today he speaks eloquently of his passion for his work. When asked about his mother, he can barely contain himself.

"She did this in honor of me. My mom's an incredible person. It took a lot of courage and sacrifice to raise me," he said.

"Charlene has the heart of a teacher. She sees herself as called to work with children," said Marilyn Llewellyn, a Carlow professor who is dean of the School of Education.

Hester said that after her husband died in 1991, she stayed home with Tray for three years, then worked part-time jobs.

"Anything I could do for his benefit, I wanted to do. I wanted to be sure that if I died tomorrow, my son would be OK," she said.

Hester found she had a love of teaching when she offered to tutor a neighbor's granddaughter and watched the girl, who was failing, become an honor student. Later Hester worked part-time as a school lunchroom aide and a crossing guard.

When Tray finished high school, Hester listened to her daughter Tamara's suggestion and went back to school. She took on student debt over 10 years of courses and often studied late into the night.

Although Hester may be a rarity among college graduates because of her age, she won't be alone in the workplace. An AARP study found that employees 50 and older increased to 31 percent of the workforce from 20 percent between 1996 and 2011.

Llewellyn said Hester's experience in raising her oldest child, a daughter who qualified for "gifted" classes, and a son, who was diagnosed with autism when people knew little about it, gives her a unique perspective.

Hester took on "a lot of debt" and she and her son gave up a lot so she could finish college, she said.

"I live off Social Security because I'm a widow. ... We did without a lot of things. My car is a 1998. It's running on a wing and a prayer," Hester said, laughing.

She struggled to keep a 3.0 grade-point average but had to do so "because I needed that to get into education."

Although she was apprehensive about student teaching, Hester loved teaching kindergarten and fourth and fifth grades at Word of God Catholic School in Swissvale, a school operated by St. Anthony's School for Exceptional Children.

"I thought I couldn't do it, but I loved every minute of it. I had a wonderful teacher," she said.