Cheryl Medford was born in 1964 in Barbados. She grew up knowing beaches, mangos, and a salty spray breeze. She was born to mother, Mary and father, Bernard. She grew up with an older sister and a younger brother and sister. It was a struggle for them to get by. Mary was a stay at home mom and Bernard was a minister. They may not have had money, but they had abundant love. She remembers, her family Christmas’ vividly. It was a special time. She would buy a pack of gum and split up the pieces evenly among her siblings. The gift was not what mattered to them. It was the time they spent just enjoying each other’s presence. One year her father got a job offer to minister in America. He quickly took the job and said he would raise enough money to fly the family to America. Three years later, when she was 5, it finally happened. They arrived in New York. She remembers how scary it was at her age to let go of Barbados and embrace this new unfamiliar place. They then moved into the new house Bernard was living in and she remembers, a lady came to the door. She was pregnant. It was Bernard’s baby. Her mother quickly threw the lady out of the house, took the children, and left Bernard. Cheryl was so hurt and confused. She described the feeling of a huge weight on her chest. She wondered how her father could do something like this if he loves them? It was hard on her mother after that. They were moving from house to house, staying with whoever would take them. From then on, Cheryl was devoted to her studies, so that later she’d be able to take care of her mother. She applied to only one college and got a full ride to RIT. There she met the love of her life. He was everything her father was not. Where she was weak he was strong. Little did she know he was from her tiny island, that his father also got a job as a minister in America, that his father passed and he was also raised by a single mother, and that she was everything he needed in his life. They shared one past, one pain, and now one destiny. Maybe it was true. Everything is better in America.