There was a once a time in Adele Grubbs life when she said her family was at the bottom of the British social ladder, a situation made even worse when she was born in the final years of World War II.

Grubbs, who became an American citizen in the late 1960s and moved to the United States with her husband, is now a Superior Court judge in Cobb County. She told Exchange Club members during their weekly luncheon that they have much to be proud of as Americans because she said here anything is possible.

She said her story wouldn’t have happened if she had not come to what she called the land of opportunity.

“I grew up in what you would call a socioeconomically depressed area,” she said. “As a small child, I remember standing on the street and telling myself that when I grow up, I wanted to always be warm and to have money to pay my bills two months in advance.”

She said she never imagined that she would be in the position she is in today, and it’s all because she came to America.

“In this country, you have the thing I’m most proud of: the freedom to achieve,” she said. “You have the freedom to be what you want to be here in America.”

Growing up in an East

London suburb, she was able to obtain scholar-

ships to private schools and colleges before eventually getting married in 1967 and emigrating from the United Kingdom when her husband was hired by Boeing.

She eventually ended up going to school in the states so she could take and pass the bar in Georgia, and worked with Sen. Johnny Isakson before she was appointed to Cobb County Juvenile Court.

Grubbs is in her third term as a superior court judge.

She reminded the audience to remember that even when they’re angry at the direction the country might be headed, there is always something to praise about the United States.

“Only in America can a story like mine happen,” she said.