On Monday mornings, Dale Edwards wakes up at 6, has a cup of coffee and plays games on her phone: Wordle, Words with Friends and Quordle. Afterward, she reads and prays.
Then she says goodbye to her dog Vivie, short for joie de vivre.
“I play with my dog because she’s going to be alone all day, so I try and wear her out a little,” Edwards said. “She’s a joy in my life. That’s what joie de vivre means, joy in life.”
When Edwards leaves home on Monday mornings, she heads to LSU’s Free Speech Alley, where she sets up her chair and props up her sign: “Ask a Mom.”
Here, she listens to the woes of students and offers them counsel.
Edwards’ set-up is a simple one. Almost everything in her Ask a Mom setup was purchased for her by family and friends. Her son bought her the red folding chair she uses each time she comes to Free Speech Alley. It’s equipped with a rain cover in case the sky opens up while she’s out there. A friend made Edwards her Ask a Mom sign.
An Ask a Mom T-shirt, which her daughter made, completes the ensemble.
“I wouldn’t say I give better advice than everybody’s mom. I would say I have 50 years of wisdom,” Edwards said. “It’s available to any student who wants to sit down and ask.”
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Edwards said her purpose is to act as a second opinion and use her experiences in life to help guide students. For more serious challenges she refers students to the LSU Student Health Center to hopefully get treated professionally by a therapist.
“I’ve been in counseling for years, so I have a lot of wisdom for people who really have deep troubles,” Edwards said. Although Edwards is no longer in counseling, she uses her past experiences to help students with their problems now.
Mathematics sophomore Hailey Garcia is one such student.
“We talked about a variety of things: children, education, mental health. She seems to be very sweet,” Garcia said. “She implied she believed certain things about me being queer, but she held her tongue, and she seemed very sweet.”
Edwards often gives advice to students who are struggling in their relationships.
“My broadest counsel on relationships is to slow down — you [students] move too fast,” Edwards said. “That’s how you get hurt. Going too fast and giving too much and giving too soon. Vulnerability is a gift that you give to someone. When you give your heart, you’re giving a gift. And you need to be able to trust that person. And you build trust over time. That doesn’t happen in two meetings or three meetings. It happens over time. And you have to give it time.”
Another problem students commonly have is figuring out what their major should be. Edwards advises students to “learn as much as you can in every field that you can.” College is a time for young adults to decide what they want to pursue in life, Edwards said.
People often sit down to talk with her, and she’ll never see them again, Edwards said, so she keeps a journal where she writes down everyone’s names and problems. Edwards said this is how she remembers and prays for them.
Edwards said she also uses the journal as motivation for tabling in Free Speech Alley, since some students passing by don’t take her seriously.
“My goal is to be available for students who have a need and don’t know where to go,” Edwards said. “And I put myself out here, and honestly I feel foolish sitting here with an Ask a Mom T-shirt on and an Ask a Mom sign. I would say every day at least 10 people laugh at me. I have to be strong in myself that what I’m doing is a good thing.”
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Edwards is also a big fan of LSU sports. She gets excited about the LSU women’s basketball team, and the personal, human side of each player.
“I have a son who is all about sports and nothing else. And I used to get up at 4 in the morning and read the sports page cover to cover so that I would know the stats so I could out-statistic him.”
Aside from tabling at Free Speech Alley, Edwards lives a modest life.
On Tuesdays, she teaches English as a second language to international students at her church.
“Our church has been doing it for 40 years,” Edwards said. “We teach English to any internationals that want to come. And we have a lot of wives of grad students come. The emphasis is on conversing well in public, making sure you understand what’s going on in Walmart.”
Edwards teaches level three conversational English. The classes go from level one, for new learners, all the way up to level six, for those who are becoming proficient speakers. Edwards’ church also offers classes with instruction on how to gain U.S. citizenship.
On Saturdays, Edwards gets together with her college roommate, Adine, from the University of Georgia. They’ve been friends for about 50 years and enjoy watching movies together like “The Chosen” and “Thelma and Louise.”
It was on a visit that her friend decided to move to Baton Rouge.
“She came out to visit, she liked it and stayed,” Edwards said. “And she got married and stayed here, and we just stayed friends and raised our kids together.”
Edwards said she went to Southern University to get her master’s degree in elementary education and ended up getting involved with a home church.
Before retiring, Edwards worked as a kindergarten teacher, a vocational counselor, a stay-at-home mom and a junior high teacher—though today she said she prefers to teach adults.
Of course, Edwards finds herself with students outside of the classroom, too. On Mondays at Free Speech Alley, she tries to provide advice through the eyes of a mother. Drawing from her past experiences, she helps students work through any problems that they come to her with.
Her advice is often simple, powerful and wide-ranging.
To all the students of LSU, she had this to say: “Be kind while you’re having fun.”
Dale Edwards invites students to “Ask a Mom” Monday, Feb. 5, 2024, in Free Speech Alley on LSU's campus in Baton Rouge, La.
