Hi, my name is Markeith. I’m starting this campaign in an effort to help one of my best friends, Antoinette Augustus. She lost everything that she owns to a house fire on Sunday, October 27, 2024. While at church, eight people's lives were changed when they lost their home to an unforeseen house fire.

Antoinette’s home wasn’t just for her. It was a home to her oldest daughter, who is pregnant, and she has a baby girl that is seven months old. Antoinette is also the legal guardian of her sister Belinda's five children: three girls and two boys. Belinda passed in 2018 from breast cancer. Before her passing, Belinda asked her sister to take care of her five children. And that’s exactly what Antoinette did. After raising her three children, she started over again to raise her sister's five kids.

I like to think that my friend's grandmother prepared her for such a time as this. With her being the oldest child and the oldest grandchild, she was always responsible for helping her grandmother prepare meals for all of her cousins and us neighborhood kids who were hanging around their house. Antoinette also brought her mother to live with her and her family when she was ill until her passing in 2022.

She started a catering business in 2021, Serenity Tastee’s LLC, doing everything from decorating, baking, and designing cakes, to doing plate lunches. As a bonus, she would feed anyone who was hungry. One thing about my friend, just like her grandmother, you will not go hungry around her. Your help is greatly appreciated. Nothing is too small.

She’s a single parent and grandmother who has given so much of herself to everyone else. I admire her strength and the woman she has become. God-fearing, not complaining once. She said to me that she trusts in the plan of God for her life and the life of her kids.

Please search your heart and be a blessing to my friend and her family as she takes on the task of rebuilding her home to give her and her children some stability.

Thank you for your donation to get this family back into their home.

1. Christina is 18, she’s a first-year student at The Southern University A&M College in the pre-nursing program.

2. Christal is 17, she’s in the 11th grade at Scotlandville Magnet High School taking honors classes.

3. Christopher is 16, he’s in the 11th grade also at Scotlandville Magnet High School, while taking a paramedic class at C-TEC.

4. Christiana is in the 8th grade at Scotlandville Middle School.

5. Christ’Shan is in the 7th grade also at Scotlandville Middle School.

GRANDCHILDREN

1. Karli’Rose is a 2nd grader and an Ambassador at Inspire School.

2. Karter is in kindergarten, he’s also at Inspire School.

3. Ta’Leigh is 7 months old.