Fiona's Story
Once upon a time in a far away land—Blackshear, Georgia—there lived a Yankee soap salesman. Kenny Graham was down to his last dollar and his last bar of soap when he fell in love with the green-eyed beauty behind the ticket counter at the Greyhound Bus Terminal. He had heard about Nana Morgan even before he met her. She had been a featured oddity in Ripley’s Believe It or Not. Why? She was the first woman to walk on two artificial legs. In the 1940s people didn’t talk about disabilities. If anyone was the talk of the town, it was Kenny. Very few Yankees had been in Blackshear since Sherman’s march to the sea.
By and by Kenny and Nana married and had a daughter they named Fiona. As a little girl Fiona liked to sit on the wooden fence in front of her house on Highway 82. Wearing her mother’s fancy hats and silky scarves, she pretended to have conversations with people in their 18-wheelers and snazzy cars who stopped at the stoplight. She also created stories for her make-believe playmate named Sandra. When Fiona was four years old Kenny and Nana had another daughter and named her—you guessed it—Sandra!
About that time the Grahams inherited a bustling grocery store right next door to their house. Fiona learned to add and subtract by making change from the cash drawer. Waiting on customers and pumping gas at Graham’s Grocery helped her to become a confident and outgoing conversationalist.
When she was thirteen, Fiona’s daddy entered her in the Junior Miss Southeast Georgia contest. She was apprehensive because she had no talent. Then her mother reminded her, “You love drama—just act!” So she studied elocution with the spinster who lived on the corner. Her recitation of “Little Orphant Annie” won her the talent competition and snagged her the title of first runner-up in the entire contest. From that day on she was destined to become one of Georgia’s most beloved storytellers.
Later that year the Piggly Wiggly Supermarket came to town, much to the demise of Graham’s Grocery. The store magically transformed into Graham’s “Dari-Kream” with “Teentown” in the back, the hottest teen hangout around. Fiona spent her days dipping ice cream and her nights dancing to the beat of early rock-n-roll. She became a popular young woman but still felt different because, after all, her daddy was a Yankee.
Although she lived a charmed life in Blackshear, Fiona dreamed of becoming a Broadway star. But it seemed more practical for a small-town girl to attend college to find a husband and get an MRS. degree. Graduating and marrying her college sweetheart, she set her sights on yet another dream of having a large family—just like Old Mother Hubbard! As it turned out she had only one child of her own, but was nonetheless surrounded by children in her 22 years as an elementary teacher.
After a brief time in the faraway lands of Memphis, Tennessee and Portland, Oregon with her husband and son, Fiona returned to Atlanta and finished her M.Ed.
If only Anne of a thousand nights could have warned her, after nineteen years her marriage ended leaving her a single parent, financially unprepared, and heartbroken. Fiona regained her confidence and creativity by directing plays and taking graduate courses in storytelling. She convinced her principal at Duluth Middle School to let her teach storytelling as an elective. Hence emerged the eighth grade Duluth Wildcat Talespinners, one of the first of its kind in the nation.
With that same passion, Fiona became Georgia’s first recipient of the prestigious Christa McAuliffe Fellowship Award. Her mission became traveling the State of Georgia to instruct teachers in the art of storytelling.
Fiona was sitting on top of the world when suddenly, like Humpty Dumpty, her world shattered within a month after winning that award. Following a series of bizarre events in surgery she woke up blind. Now faced with adjusting as a blind woman in a sighted world, she struggled with the potential of losing her fellowship, her career, her house, her car and her livelihood, all in one fell swoop.
Feeling like an independent woman in a dependent body, Fiona refused to give up. She pleaded her case to the Superintendent of Schools, the Board of Education and even her Congressman in an effort to save her fellowship. After six months of rehabilitation she commenced to travel the State of Georgia just as planned. Rising above her circumstances she served as President of the Southern Order of Storytellers and kept up with storytelling commitments as well.
Remembering the lessons she had learned from her mother about handling life’s ups and downs, Fiona went on to develop programs on overcoming adversity. Her advocacy for people with disabilities won her more honors, including a Commendation from the Governor of Georgia, the Tommy Award, named for famed advocate, Tommy Nobis, and a cover story in Southern Living magazine. She was honored to have had an opportunity to address the athletes at the 1996 Paralympic Games and to have her story and her mother’s written in the Paralympic book, Portraits in Spirit. She felt truly honored to be chosen to tell the story of Blaze, the Paralympic mascot.
In the year 2000 Fiona won First Runner-up for National Storyteller of the Year and in 2002 she was a showcase speaker at the National Speakers Association Annual Conference. She certainly epitomizes the book Who Moved My Cheese? Searching for strength to make lemonade out these lemons, she wrote Life Is Like A Blind Date.
Fiona’s story doesn’t end with just honors and awards. Her passion is using the art of storytelling with the young and the young at heart to help them overcome adversity in their own lives. “Seeing Differently” has successfully changed attitudes of at-risk teenagers and gained her a new perspective for her blindness. “Embracing Change” has helped many adults and young people in transition. No one leaves one of her performances without seeing life a little differently. They are captivated by her humor, imagination and good old-fashioned Southern charm.
Today Fiona divides her time between speaking and storytelling engagements and her first love—enjoying her four grandchildren. She continues to develop storytelling programs for adults, schoolchildren, and even preschoolers. She has a remarkable ability to reach out to those who struggle the most—youth offenders, addicts, the homeless, and the disabled. Her message of hope is an inspiration to all.
Fiona Page: brave, amazing, remarkable!