Ralph Burns has led an interesting life. He was abandoned as a child and dropped out of school in the third grade, but through his struggles, he has made a good living as a pastor and a painter. He also learned how to play the guitar at 5 years old, and has since performed in bars, and even for weddings and charities. But shockingly enough, Burns never learned to read.
"I had a rough life," he said. "I was sometimes embarrassed, but I got over that."
Nevertheless, the yearning to learn how to read never left him.
As a man who has never let obstacles get in his way, Burns went to Friends of Literacy, an organization that teaches adults how to read for free.
It wasn't easy.
"I've been through 50 to 100 teachers. No one taught me," he said.
That is, until he met Sydney Osbourne.
Osbourne is a volunteer with the organization, and has been working with Burns for more than a year, two hours every week.
"He didn't know the letters of the alphabet or the sounds that went with the letters," she said.
But Burns kept at it, and now he's able to read at a first grade level.
"It opens up a whole world," he said.
Burns has no plans on stopping his lessons, and hopes to become an avid reader.
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