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Tatum had arranged for Williams' middle school assistant principal, a family friend, to join her on the stage for the ceremony. She served as the master of ceremony and commencement speaker and even conferred on her son a special quarantine diploma that featured a picture of toilet paper -- a hot commodity during the pandemic -- as the seal.

\"I wanted to make it as realistic as possible so I told him, 'Your last name begins with a 'W,' so it's going to be a while before you're called,'\" said Tatum, with a laugh. \"And at the end I screamed like I was in arena, like I would have done if I was at Baylor.\"

Tatum said her mother, Williams' grandmother, helped raise Williams and was his \"biggest cheerleader.\" She passed away last year and the at-home commencement ceremony helped the family feel like she was there with them too celebrating Williams' accomplishment, according to Tatum.

\"We've had some grieving that she wouldn't be [at his graduation],\" said Tatum. \"She was over the top like [the at-home ceremony] so I feel like I honored her well.\"

Williams is headed in the fall to medical school at the University of Houston, his first choice for medical school, where he plans to study to become an orthopedic surgeon.

\"PHOTO:
Courtesy Ayanna Tatum
PHOTO: Ayanna Tatum held a backyard graduation ceremony for her son, Baylor University graduate Derrick Williams.
>

\"He graduated from high school in June 2016 and that same month he asked me to buy him an MCAT [Medical College Admission Test] study guide and since then he was always studying,\" Tatum said of her son, who has a YouTube channel where he shares tips for pre-med students. \"When you see it pay off and come together, that's an excitement you can't describe.\"

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