The year was 1992. The month was June. I became a resident of Vista Maria while simultaneously becoming a graduate of Cass Technical High School. It is my current 50-year-old self that can reflect with such philosophical acuteness on the juxtaposition of my then 16-year-old self, beginning to be and coming into an unknown existence at the exact same moment. It is my now 50-year-old self, in hindsight, who can identify the grace, synchronicity, wisdom, and impeccable planning of an omniscient Creator and the great Cloud of Ancestral Witnesses who orchestrated the series of events that ordained Vista Maria to be one of the many mansions that my Father had prepared, promised, and prophesied to me in John 14:2.
How, you may ask, can I describe Vista Maria as a “mansion” when growing up, it was known as the place where the “bad girls” went if you did not, could not, and should not “act right”? Additionally, if you know, like I know, the mothers of the church always alluded to John 14:2 as an expected future for those who lived a good Christian life. This mansion that was surrounded by streets of gold, according to the Sunday morning testimonies I heard, would be a just and well-deserved reward for the pain and suffering of being Black in America. So, when and how did being a resident of an organization, which at the time, I only knew to be a place for troubled, run away, rebellious girls, equate in my mind in 1992 to being an opulent, luxurious “mansion,” prepared, built, and designed by the Creator? It didn’t then, but in 2025, it does now.
All of us, in our lifetime, will take residency in various “mansions.” We call these “mansions”: homes, jobs, degrees, marriages, friendships, careers, memberships, birthdays, graduations, funerals, births, political affiliations, etc. For some of us, these “mansions” are permanent, but for many of us, they are transitory. Regardless of the length of time spent, these “mansions” were prepared for us before we were born, and they have and will serve a purpose in our development. These “mansions” are intentional and are not coincidental. These “mansions” serve as a reminder that we are all connected, regardless of race, gender, geographic location, or socio-economic status.
In 1883, the Creator gave Sister Mary Euphrasia and five other Sisters of the Good Shepherd the vision to build a “mansion” known as Vista Maria to serve as a transitory place for young girls who needed to be taught and given the tools necessary to work through and overcome spiritual, physical, mental, emotional, and psychological abuses and traumas. They understood that with humans, there would be moments of fallibility. Yet, if they committed to the divine vision, the impact of Vista Maria on the lives of its residents would be infallible.
The evidence of Vista Maria’s infallibility is that it thrived for 109 years because my 16-year-old self would need a bridge, a hiding place, and a green pasture to get to my next “mansion,” Wayne State University, which in turn would lead me to take residency in many “mansions” – as an educator for Detroit Public Schools Community District, a Doctor of Metaphysics, an Ordained Minister, and a published author of seven books, to name a few, over the course of thirty-three years.
In closing, success is measured by one’s ability to commit to the vision, regardless of external obstacles. If Vista Maria committed to its vision for 109 years so that a 16-year-old named Deandra Averhart, who grew up on the west side of Detroit, could be rerouted, and thirty-three years later, pen this testament, then it is evident that Vista Maria’s resilience, grit, and perseverance are irrefutably divine. Its mission and impact are not only relevant but sustainable.
With deepest gratitude,
Rev. Dr. Deandra Averhart