In 1952, Gloria Dean Alexander came to Kansas City, Kansas. Full of hope and enthusiasm to make a difference in the lives of young people, she began working for the Kansas City, Kansas Public Schools as a second grade teacher. She met and married Russell McKinley Willis. They had one daughter, Sonya. She had dual loves—her career and her family. Known for placing the needs of children first , she strongly believed in the important role parents play in their child’s education. During Board of Education meetings, Gloria frequently raised the questions “Have we reached out to the parents? What do they think?” In 2004, Gloria's winding journey as an educator brought her to a much-celebrated induction into the Mid-America Education Hall of Fame at the Kansas City Kansas Community College. But in 2016, Gloria faced life-defining questions concerning the control of her own mortality. She had to reconsider the relationship with her own child, the daughter she had held at bay emotionally by her code of silence. Where would her final journey take her when she needed Sonya the most