The Power of Friendship

The class was over, and still I sat, it was 1988. The professor, an old woman asked if she could buy me a soda pop. Her name is Dr. Edythe Leupp, a professor at Southern Nazarene University, Bethany, Oklahoma. I had decided to drop out of college; a dream of mine since I was 14 years old. Dr. Leupp asked me to tell her my story- who am I. In a cantankerous moment, I decided, “what the heck, you want to know, I’ll tell you.”
I was enduring a serious depression, later (1993) identified as Schizoaffective Disorder and Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, Major Depressive Disorder, Multiple Personalities Disorder and Post Trauma Stress Disorder. I was a mother of two very bright girls and a wife of a hard-working man. I was 27 years old, (married since I was 15 yrs.’ old) a traditional student and I was hopelessly floundering in my classes. I was the first person to get a GED and attend college in both my husband and my families. Finances were tight and I was attending a private university on school loans.
Dr. Leupp listened to my career goals of Teaching Wildlife Biology in the future. She happed to be a Teacher Education Professor. She asked me if I would give SNU another chance and come to the Teacher Education classes and she would be my Academic Advisor. I was eking out D’s and my GPA was tanked, I was overloaded, over worked, and just plain tired. But I changed my degree plan to test this old lady’s word and see if she would bail on me too.
I used the psychologists’ services on campus to help me function with the stressors of daily life. I started having anxiety seizures because of stress. I earned A’s in all my education classes. My husband was very supportive and proud of me and stood by me while experiencing my mental illnesses. Dr. Leupp was proud of my accomplishment’s and listened to my hopes, dreams, aspirations, and well as the negative stuff, she told me I was smart – brains plus- and said I was achieving success already; I had Dr. Leupp in my corner.
Mom Leupp attended mother-daughter events with me and would later say I was her success story. She talked to me about Gods love for me and helped me heal old wounds. If she hadn’t taken a moment out of her busy schedule and offered to buy me a soda pop my life would have turned out different. I would have considered myself a failure at life. I am eternally grateful to Dr. Edythe Leupp; aka Mom Leupp. She cared to see beneath the pain to the potential of what I could be. She is 95 years old and still and active part of my life.