“I am a builder, a welder, a pipefitter, and can work with aluminum and steel. I draw, cook and sew. I have many talents, but I struggled all of my life because of where I came from. I look at the young kids now and say me too, and show them there is a better way. I get them out of the box and show them things that are positive. I teach them how to fish, work on yards, cook, do art and woodwork. I took a bus of 21 kids to church on Sunday, I had so many kids who wanted to go, I couldn’t take them all. When God chooses you to something, there is nothing you can do about it. I started OCD, One Common Denominator. The common denominator is God. ‘I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.’ I work with kids

I didn’t realize during my struggles that I was my own worst enemy. My sister died at 38 and I raised her kids. I was the baby of the family and tried to keep the family together. I put so much pressure on myself that if I couldn’t do this, or that, they couldn’t make it. It was a lot of responsibility as a young kid and I didn’t have direction because my mother never learned hot to take care of us. You struggle and fall and have to get back up. I didn’t know God was there or how to reach out to him.

My sister and my mother were sick and dying at the same time. I went from floor to floor at the hospital taking care of them. I was twenty-something at the time. My brother was high on crack and had to watch my back with him because he was always trying to take from me. I had to choose which between my mother and sister who to take home because the hospital said I could only take one hospital bed and had to send the other to hospice. I chose my mother and promised my sister to take care of her kids.

I was diagnosed with cancer when I was 42 years old. I was a supervisor at Omega Protein making over $20 an hour. I have always been a strong woman, but I started feeling like something was wrong. I had pancreatic cancer that spread to my lungs. I had blood transfusions, chemo and radiation. Doctors gave me 3-6 months but God didn’t. I had the desire to live. God made me look back over the 29 surgeries and the rest of my life to see where he helped me through.

I lost my insurance while I was in the hospital because Cancer Treatment Center of America was late on my payment. I went to Medicare and Medicaid but neither could help me. God said, ‘Haven’t I been there for you?’ The next day the cancer center said they would continue my treatment free of charge. They would feed me and fly me up there free of charge. I went back a month later and the doctor ran scans and said all of the cancer was gone. I had already felt that on my elevator ride to his office.

God saved me to give back. I have to keep giving back because I see the struggles kids go through. I have been there and they don’t have to go there. Ask God for help. He blew breath into my body at my darkest time, I know he can do anything.

Kids don’t get love at home so they need to learn how to love themselves. Their parents were brought up the same way. We have to step in and break the cycle or it is going to keep going down. We are losing so many kids. We have to learn how to live in the gap between who we were and who we want to be. Appreciate the now. As long as God gives me the strength, I am going to keep doing what he called me to do.

I love this earth and this body, but if God took me, I would be alright knowing I have done the best I can to turn someone else toward Him. Appreciate the small things because God has so much more for you.”