By Dixie Ann Black
Mary Rose Hall was married before she finished South Broward High School.
Today she lives in Hollywood, Florida, but she was born in Marietta, Georgia in 1956 and moved to Fort Lauderdale in 1966.
“In those days you had to be a virgin when you got married.” Mary Rose recalls.
“My mom and dad were married for 65 years and had 13 kids. Our father Leroy was a hard worker. He was never sick. He died of old age at 100 years of age. Mom taught us how to work, how to be who we are today. Everyone one of us had to get a job and know what it was like to pay a bill.”
Mary Rose’s mother, Ms. Lizzy, died at the age of 80, but she left her mark working as a maid and an extremely talented homemaker. Her father was a construction worker.
But unlike her rock-solid parents, Mary Rose’s marriage didn’t last. It crumbled under the pressure of an abusive, controlling husband. He used the typical mind games of an abuser.
“Nobody will want you because you have a kid!” he told her.
“I felt lost,” she recalled. But Mary Rose eventually found the strength to leave him. Her rock, her mother, took her in, and she began her climb to self-empowerment. The first lesson Mary Rose learned was that the Human Services system that was supposed to help her was also a hurdle.
“I was getting $30 for food stamps which was not enough to feed us, but if I worked it was considered fraud.” And this is how Mary Rose inadvertently found herself on the wrong side of the law and seeking clemency.
Still, she pressed on. Driven by the strong worth ethic established by her parents, Mary Rose took any job she could get. She put herself through school to become a Mental Health Technician at the South Florida Mental Hospital. But from 1977 to 1995 she worked two and three jobs at a time to make ends meet for her and her four daughters.
“I worked as a Transporter for the school system, I worked in a juvenile sex offender program, at a work release program in Pompano, at a security company, as a longshoreman… anything I could get to be able to take care of my kids.”
Meanwhile, her luck with men left her high and dry each time. Yet, despite two failed marriages and repeated abuses, Mary Rose managed to raise her four daughters by herself. She is extremely proud of how they turned out.
“My girls are all talented entrepreneurs.” Her daughters have branched out in a variety of independent professional careers: one is a singer, another is a blogger, a third is a graphic designer and the fourth one has opened her own daycare. Mary Rose reflected that, “It’s nothing but God”, in putting her children through college and imparting her parents’ work ethic and her entrepreneurial spirit into her girls.
Mary Rose and her family hit a low point when one brother died in prison under unclear circumstances. A second was killed by a hit-and-run driver who was later identified. In both cases Mary Rose reported feeling that the Hollywood police department left much undone in bringing justice and clarity to the tragedies. Regarding her brother hit by the car she said,
“The woman was never charged, leaving nine kids without a dad.”
Mary Rose herself experienced the threat of death when she suffered a critical car accident.
“I had to be cut out of the car by the jaws of life.”
She did not just survive, she thrived. She went on to work with Habitat for Humanity to construct her own home in Hollywood, Florida. Today she owns that home free and clear and cares for a dear family friend in the process.
“I live in a neighborhood where people look out for each other.”
Despite having to retire early due to a disability, she has reinvented herself. She has applied that work ethic learned from her parents to create made -to-order culinary delights for her community. She recalled how she and her girls would enjoy cooking their special pancakes with their grandmother. From that experience a life-long love of cooking was born.
Now Mary Rose is known for her conch salads, cakes and just about any meal you want to order from her. But her pride and joy are her “Slap your Mama pancakes” made with peanut butter on top, which were born in her mother’s kitchen.
The message she wants to leave with anyone who learns of her story is, “Focus on what you believe in and follow your dreams. You don’t need a man to make you successful. Dream big, don’t look back. As long as you are independent you can be successful regardless of color.”
And her final word in summing up her success in life is this, “If it wasn’t for God, none of this would have happened.”
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