owens m. d.

This book, ＂Cherished in the Byways＂, is intended to inspire poor and abused young people to succeed, even if support from family is not available.

I have written about an experience: As a young African-American--one of eleven children whose father never earned more that fifty-five dollars in any week, I arrived at Chicago’s Union Station with a duffel bag containing everything I owned in this world and twenty-eight dollars in cash. I knew no one in Chicago and I had no relatives in Chicago. Twelve years later I had a Bachelor of Science Degree in Biology and a Doctorate in Medicine. I am now a board-certified pediatrician.

I have written of this experience with some degree of creativity and I have written it with humor. This manuscript contains about 80,000 words. This manuscript is not a simple chronology of events; in the manuscript I use poetry, prose, and cultural perspective, to weave a very entertaining and encouraging read.

My audience for my manuscript ranges from high school through young adulthood, especially those needing encouragement to persist in seeking goals when there is not much parental support. However, even older adults can surely derive encouragement and entertainment from reading my book.

I had not told anyone that I wanted to become a doctor; from a black derelict, that would sound ridiculous!

I arrived in Chicago with all I owned in a duffel bag... I had no relatives in Chicago, I knew no one in Chicago.

In the YMCA on Wabash Avenue, I counted my meager funds: a twenty dollar bill and an empty Viceroy cigarette pack filled with nickels, dimes, and quarters totalling about eight dollars. So I had a total of twenty-eight dollar upon which to build a new life.

12 years later, on JUNE 7th, 1971, a ten year old boy in my hometown, Mobile, delivered a newspaper, ＂T