Celebrating the Life and Travels of Barbara Hillary

Photo credit: Zachary Murray/Big Mongolia Travel

Barbara Hillary had many labels: daughter; Harlemite; African-American; Black woman; nurse; magazine founder; Editor-in-Chief; activist; and traveler, no, better yet, explorer. But most importantly, she was a trailblazer. Not only in travel, but in life. Because despite being born in a place and time that had already made so many decisions and placed limitations on her, decided to live life her own way. No matter how strange those decisions may have seemed to some.

Luckily for Barbara, those risks panned out. And she ended up achieving goals that she never even meant to set. But in so doing, she made history. On April 23, 2007, she became the first African-American woman to ever reach the North Pole. While this would be an amazing feat for almost anyone, Barbara completed that journey at a time in her life when most people would have considered their own lives to be near completion. She was 75 at the time.

But not to be outdone, not even by herself, Barbara topped this feat by becoming the first Black woman to have reached the North and South Poles, when she reached Antartica in four years later on January 6, 2011—at the ripe old age of 79. She did all this even with a 25% reduction in her breathing capacity. While I am not certain of what propelled her to take on these enormous tasks, I’d like to think that her thought process went something like this: “If I can survive cancer, I can survive anything.”

And survive she did. And went on to become someone who lived her life the way that she wanted, not the way that she was supposed to. She crowd-sourced her travels before the advent of internet sites such as GoFundMe. Instead, she sent mailing to private donors and government agencies urging them to get in on the action, because she was going regardless.

When she heard that she’d have to learn to ski in order to reach the North Pole, she mastered the slopes. When she realized that she’s have to increase her fitness level in order to complete the journey, she started lifting weights. She was so intent, in fact, on achieving her goal that she even hired a personal trainer.

While I am sad that I never learned about her feats until after her death, I am grateful to have learned about her life at all. In so many ways, her life and travels epitomize what it means to travel strange. Although I generally detest stories about how people “beat the odds” and “pulled themselves up by their bootstraps,” mostly because they seem to serve as equal parts inspiration and condemnation for those who have lost to the house or find themselves without boots, Barbara did something that we all need to do from time to time—she changed her mind. She dared to think of her life differently.

Obviously, I cannot speak to her thought process. However, I do know that she never set out to make history. Instead she took a trip to Canada, fell in love with its northern beauty, and decided that she wanted more. When she learned that a black woman had never made to the North Pole, she simply decided, “Hey! I think I’ll give that a go!” And made it happen.

That, my dear readers, is what I ask of you. There will come many times in our lives where we will be required to pivot. To make an unexpected choice, to get out of a rut, to embark on something that you truly never considered to be an option at all. At these intervals, at worst you will prepare yourself for the next step in life. At best, you’ll embark upon the journey of a lifetime.

And if you are like Barbara you will end up with a life a legacy in which you are wise enough, willing enough and brave enough to live, love and travel strangely.