‘Christmas With a Cause’ Made the Holiday Season a Little Brighter for Families

Keilah Jones, 28, took advantage of a Christmas shopping
spree that enabled her to take home a boxful of merchandise
for her children for a mere $25. Photos by Wiley Henry

Tiara Caswell (right), executive director of Legacy Impact 
Community Resource Center and daughter of Commissioner
Charlie Caswell, mingles with shoppers who came out for
“Christmas With a Cause.” 

MEMPHIS, TN – When Keilah Jones learned that families with limited resources could shop for pennies on the dollar, she took her two children to Legacy Impact Community Resource Center in the Frayser community on Dec. 16 to take part in “Christmas With a Cause.”

From noon to 4 p.m., parents and their children made their way to the resource center, where thousands of items were available for their choosing and to help make the holiday season a little brighter – particularly for the children.

Hosted by Shelby County Commissioner Charlie Caswell Jr. and radio and TV personality Dr. Telisa Franklin, Jones and other parents donated $25 at the door in exchange for merchandise valued at $100 or more.

“We are raising funds to finish the renovation of the Legacy Impact Community Resource Center,” said Tiara Caswell, the executive director. She also heads Legacy of Legends Community Development Corporation.

The 58,000 sq.ft. facility serves as a hub for resources and houses the Reverend James E. Smith Freedom Fighters Gallery, the Keiya Graves-Garrett Training Academy, the Legacy Impact Performing Arts Center, and more.

It is home to other organizations and programs as well. 

The sponsors of “Christmas With a Cause” included the S.O. What Foundation, Legacy of Legends CDC, Beyond Educating Foundation, I Am She, and Caswell Group Consulting. 

“I thought this was a very awesome event for kids to be able to get things for Christmas at a very affordable price,” said Jones, 28, an Orange Mound resident and reset teacher for Shelby County Schools.

On display were a mix of new shoes, books, jewelry, bicycles, clothes, undergarments, toys, household items, and other merchandise that parents like Jones were all too happy to receive.

The merchandise – clearance sales and out-of-season items valued altogether in the thousands – were provided by Walmart, Burlington, Target, and other stores, Caswell pointed out.

The public was asked to donate items as well.

“We're using this to be able to give our residents in Frayser the opportunity to have brand new items that are conveniently located in their neighborhood and not [sold] at a retail price,” she said. 

Caswell, 27, is the daughter of Commissioner Caswell, who represents District 6 in Shelby County. He is a pastor, founder and CEO of Legacy of Legends CDC, and a longtime community activist in Frayser. 

“We understand that Frayser is like the second poorest zip code (38127) in the city of Memphis,” the commissioner said. “And being here for so long, we know there are many struggles that families and children deal with daily.”

He said the idea is to help families and to give them hope at Christmas time.

“Economically, we know that many people in this community suffer from poverty,” said Commissioner Caswell. “This is a blessing to the community…to be able to give them the capacity to get more for less.” 

Jones took home a boxful of gifts for her daughter, Cailey Owens, 9, and her 5-year-old son, Cortez Taylor. “It helps me out a lot to get a lot of things at an affordable price,” she said.

Caswell reflected on his youth when he and his 16 brothers and sisters went lacking many times at Christmas. 

“We were such a big family,” he said. “So, I know that feeling on Christmas not to have much.”

Copyright 2023 TNTRIBUNE. All rights reserved. 

LINCS Helped Meishal Henry to Overcome Her Addiction

 

Wanda Taylor-Wilson (left), founder and CEO of Ladies 
in Need Can Survive, Inc., helped to transition Meishal
Berniece Henry back into society after her struggle with
alcohol and drugs. Photo composite by Wiley Henry

EDITOR’S NOTE: This is the final installment of a two-part series about a woman who was able to harness her addiction and begin life anew.

MEMPHIS, TN – In all her 62 years, Meishal Berniece Henry had never owned anything with her name on it, such as a driver’s license, automobile, insurance, and a home. The one she once lived in bore her ex-husband’s name.

That’s because Henry was battling alcohol and drug addiction for 35 years and succumbed to the powerful lure. She couldn’t shake it, nor could she eradicate it. Not on her own.

Then she met Wanda Taylor-Wilson, founder and CEO of Ladies in Need Can Survive, Inc., a nonprofit 501(c)(3) transitional home in the Frayser community for women grappling with substance abuse, homelessness, and domestic violence.

Henry met the criteria for admission to LINCS and spent 18 months of intense therapy, including a four-phase approach to reshape her life. Now she has a driver’s license, automobile, insurance, and her own home.

“I just feel so blessed and grateful to God that He loved me enough to give me time to see the person that He truly wanted me to be,” Henry resounded. 

Alcohol and drugs had robbed her of happiness, including her children, education, friends, and her self-worth. She had sunk to the depths of despair and found it difficult to free herself from the clutches of alcohol and drugs.

“I wasn't mentally stable,” Henry admitted. “I realized that I blamed myself and thought I was a bad person for a long time. But I realized that I was sicker than I ever could have dreamed I was.”

After coming onboard LINCS, Henry needed not worry. Taylor-Wilson is used to women whose travails are overwhelming and difficult to overcome without intervention. What she had done for others at LINCS, she would do for Henry as well.

But before Henry was admitted into the program, “she said to me, ‘Ms. Wanda, if you allow me in your program, I won't give you any problems.’ Then she said, ‘Ms. Wanda, is there any hope for me?’”

Taylor-Wilson responded with forthrightness. The women in her charge had been reduced to hopelessness prior to coming to LINCS, but they were hopeful that their lives would be transformed afterward, she said.

“She wasn’t in a good place at 61 [when she came to LINCS],” said Taylor-Wilson, speaking of Henry, one of the oldest residents to be admitted into the LINCS program. “She said, ‘What can I really accomplish in life at 61 years old?’”

Taylor-Wilson began with an Individual Service Plan for Henry. “This gives me the opportunity to guide women in the right direction,” she said, “and provide them with the skill set to obtain, sustain, and maintain them after they complete the program.”

After an ISP is completed, she said, the process of transitioning troubled women back into society begins. Henry was now set to begin the arduous journey to sobriety and freedom from drugs. But transitioning her back into society would take 18 months.

“Our program is only 12 months,” Taylor-Wilson pointed out. “But depending on the individual need, we can make some adjustments and extend the program for them.” 

She said Henry needed more time to begin the process of saving money, improving her credit score, purchasing a home, transportation, and other necessities before transitioning to her own place.

The four phases that Henry had to complete included a wide range of classes and therapy once a week, in addition to shifting her thinking of woeful thoughts and her relationship with God. 

“We provide them with case management, domestic violence education,” said Taylor-Wilson, “and classes like anger management, life skills, parenting, job readiness, financial literacy, and education assistance.”

And then there is the alcohol and drug intense outpatient program. “This helps them to understand the addiction,” Taylor-Wilson explained, “and how to live life without the addiction.”

Henry’s transition back into society is now complete. “I feel amazing! I am happy!” she exulted.

“I got her to the finish line,” said Taylor-Wilson, adding, “I’m the proudest CEO on this side of heaven, knowing that I was able to contribute something to help another woman turn her life completely around.”

For more information about Ladies in Need Can Survive, Inc., or to make a monetary donation, visit the website at www.ladiescan.org. Or contact Wanda Taylor-Wilson at 901-351-9864 or by email at ladiescan@yahoo.com.

Copyright 2023 TNTRIBUNE. All rights reserved.

Meishal Berniece Henry: The Road to Recovery

Meishal Berniece Henry has struggled with alcoholism  
for decades. Now her best life is coming into view.
Photo by Wiley Henry

EDITOR’S NOTE: This is the first installment of a two-part series about a woman who turned her life around after a tumultuous battle with alcohol and drug addiction.

MEMPHIS, TN – Meishal Berniece Henry is deliriously happy. She earned a college degree in phlebotomy, makes a decent wage on her “dream job,” and purchased a new home in the Alcy Ball community.

“I’m doing awesome,” she said. 

But that wasn’t always the case. In fact, Henry’s journey to happiness didn’t come so easily. It was hampered by destructive behavior – a kind of self-inflicted wound that festered over time.

“I didn’t know that I was sick,” Henry confessed. She was an alcoholic stuck in a quagmire that kept her in a drunken stupor for 35 years. 

“I started drinking and experimenting in high school with my friends,” she explained. “But I think things went wrong when I met my husband and I got pregnant with my first child.”

Henry was 19; he was 27.

“He kept some things from me, and it kind of shook me up,” said Henry, now 62. “By the time I found out, I was already with child. Things went mentally downhill for me after that.”

Henry found it difficult to cope, which caused her to spiral down into an abyss of emotional and mental distress. She also suffered from severe postpartum depression. 

“But I wasn't drinking when I had my children,” the mother of five conceded: Natasha, now 42; Ashley, 38; Erica, 36; Amanda, 33; and Christopher, 30. 

Then Henry’s brother died. He was her rock; she could lean on him for support. At that time, “It was just me, my mother, and my brother,” she said.

Henry’s father died, too, in the early 90s; she was in her early 30s. On top of that, “Me and my mom were sort of estranged,” she said unabashedly. “Everything wasn't her fault, though.”

Even so, Henry kept drinking in excess while trying to run a household. Her marriage was on the brink as well. “I was trying to be an adult with a child's mind,” she recounted, “and it was just hard.”

Thinking she was doing the right thing, Henry relinquished custody of her children to the state. But her son was separated from his sisters. 

“I didn't understand the consequences,” she said in retrospect. “Since he was so young, he ended up getting adopted.”

After the children were gone, Henry took to the streets, drank incessantly without fail, got hooked on drugs, and teetered in and out of relationships.

She also worked a job off and on to support her drinking binges and drug addiction. “I was pretty much a wild child,” she admitted, and struggled to keep a roof over her head.

“I tried to get back with my husband a couple of times. It didn't work,” she said. “And I bounced around with whoever I could live with.”

Henry was at a crossroad. She could succumb to her addiction or she could seek help.

She chose the latter and got herself admitted to Serenity Recovery Centers, a treatment facility in Memphis for alcohol and drug addiction. A sponsor got her a job. After six months of sobriety, she relapsed.

“I lost my job in 2013,” she said. “I couldn't hold the job any longer.”

Henry was broken, hopeless, at the edge of despair. Hitting rock bottom was closer than ever. After her brother died in 2014, suicidal thoughts emerged. In 2019, she had a heart attack.

“I couldn’t stop drinking; I didn’t want to stop drinking,” she said.

Henry had been staying with a man that kept her inebriated. She couldn’t break the lure of alcohol, the urge to drink. She needed to dry out. So, in 2021, she sought help at Alliance Mental Health Service.

“They put me on convulsive medication,” she said, “because I drank so much that I was in danger of going into convulsions.”

Henry decided to stop drinking. She could almost hear the cries of her children and her children’s children. She wanted to be a good example for them.

“My grandchildren and my children were a big inspiration to me – especially my grandkids – to stop drinking,” she said.

Henry wound up back at Serenity. From there, it was Grace House of Memphis, a home for alcoholic women. At Grace, her therapist recommended that she contact Wanda Taylor-Wilson, founder and CEO of Ladies in Need Can Survive, Inc., a transitional home for women.

“So, I asked Mrs. Wanda if she would interview me to see if I was a good fit for her program.”

That was 18 months ago. Henry is a different woman now. 

Copyright 2023 TNTRIBUNE. All rights reserved.