01/18/2012
Willis Allen: Siena Literacy Center
Willis Allen, 68, came to Detroit from Mississippi in 1964 in search of a job. And for most of his life, he worked hard to hide the fact that he couldn’t read.
“I would just hide it,” says Allen, who had asthma as a child and was kept home by his parents after he turned 9. “I had more bad jobs in the plant because nobody else would want it.”
Allen, who worked for General Motors until he retired in 2006, says he was always on time and never missed a day of work. He was promoted quickly because “they could show me something once, and I knew it.”
He could sign his name and date of birth, but handling paperwork was nearly impossible.
He says he would find a “graceful” way not to read documents, pretending he needed glasses. Colleagues and supervisors helped him without ever asking explicitly whether he could read.
He says he drank to mask his feelings of despair but quit drinking in 2006.
In June, Allen, a father of four, went to buy a car for one of his daughters, but he kept bringing the wrong paperwork.
Fred Jennings, a salesman at Les Stanford Chevrolet Cadillac in Dearborn, steered him to the Siena Literacy Center in Detroit, and Allen began classes June 15.
Now he’s learning his letters and beginning to recognize words on television.
He meets with his tutor, Ann Brady, every Tuesday morning. He pays attention to his grandson singing his ABCs now, and is happy with his progress.
“Honestly, I feel proud. I feel great,” Allen says, adding, “I’ve even started to communicate better with my kids. I feel good if I can help somebody else not go through what I did.”
Sharon Mills, who has tutored at Siena since 2006, leads the 13-hour orientations for tutors, held two or three times a year. She encourages people to volunteer.
Siena director Donna Nesbitt says that through Reading Works, she hopes to expand the opportunities for volunteers and learners, along with adding software to let learners hone their skills at home.
“It’s exciting. It’s never boring,” Mills says. “That relationship with that student is everything. … It’s a wonderful way to reinvent yourself as a human being.”
Profile by Naomi R. Patton/Detroit Free Press
Photography by Kathleen Galligan/Detroit Free Press
