AMERICAN FORK — Once the student, Vickey Manning has become the teacher.

Manning, a high school dropout, sought help with reading, writing and computation at the American Fork Literacy Center.

And now she tutors others, giving back benefits she received.

"I'm learning a lot," Manning said. "I can always say I can help. It's not like it's a chore. To me, it's fun."

Manning is a resilient, eccentric woman in her 40s with a hearty laugh.

"You can't tell me I can't do something without me going out and doing it," she says.

She faced challenges in her teenage years. When she was a junior in high school, a house fire left her parents hospitalized for months.

Manning, the fifth of 10 kids, was the only family member who volunteered to care for her blind grandmother, who required constant attention. Manning left school to provide care.

Two years later, she married. And in 1985, when her husband died of cancer, Manning became a single mother of three children, now 26, 24 and 14.

"It was a struggle," said Manning. "I wouldn't recommend being a single parent."

Manning returned to live with her parents for 11 years before getting back on her own feet. Over the years, she worked on her GED, but transportation to the classes in Orem proved a problem because she doesn't own a car.

Four blocks from her home is the American Fork Library, and in its basement is the American Fork Literacy Center. She went there, originally with a Hispanic boyfriend so he could learn English and she could learn Spanish.

Eventually, she found herself taking classes in mathematics, writing and reading.

"It wasn't that I didn't know how to read. I just wanted to read faster," Manning said.

She developed a voracious appetite for reading, devouring classics such as Mark Twain's "Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" and "Tom Sawyer."

Manning also read novels by Stephen King and John Grisham. She picked up a romance novel or two, as well.

Now, Manning helps elementary students with homework and reading. She helps others fill out job applications and has helped a Vietnamese woman study for her U.S. citizenship test.

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Manning said wherever life takes her, she's going to take a book for the journey.

She's even writing a book about her life.

"I want to try and do something adventurous," Manning said. "Something that no one else has ever done before. Whatever that is, I don't know yet."


E-mail: csheffield@desnews.com

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