A sparkling voice: Marjorie Bryant

In the quiet hallway of a floral mural-covered building, a security guard sits at a desk, chatting away with a college student. 

Her face forms into a motherly smile and her smooth, slow voice seems weighed down through age. 

And yet, her voice jumps slightly higher with a sparkle of enjoyment. 

It doesn’t seem that she took the #6 bus from Jackson Park bright and early this morning. 

And has been taking it for the last 32 years.

And has been working non-stop for the last 50 years, working jobs in security at Columbia College, childcare and security at City Colleges, or Spiegel’s to stuffing packages on a conveyor belt. 

And helped her son who still can’t work because the bullet is still in his back from being shot. 

And had to work two jobs for years to support her two kids when her husband Mike died from back cancer in his 30s. 

“No one in my family helped me but my mother and my aunt,” she says.

And was separated at 4 months from her mother in Helena, Arkansas, to be raised by her dad and grandmother in Detroit. 

Yet, she went to Kennedy King College in her 30s to get her degree in social work and childcare. 

And helped raise her stepsister’s kids while being a single mother. 

And always found herself a job to support her family without needing benefits. 

And saw smoke billowing out of 1104 S. Michigan and saved the building by calling security. 

And taught her grandkids to finish school and “do what is good for your heart.”

And sitting at that security desk at 1312 S. Michigan after her morning commute, Marjorie Bryant hummed contently along with each of the student’s words, her voice sparkling ever so slightly more.