Raya Williams Fund

To a loving mother, Raya.

From the age of 1-4 my mom was both my mom and dad. She took care of 3 kids by herself. And when I was 5, she met my stepdad and then together, they both took care of our family. In all my life, my mom was a nice person through and through. You could do something so wrong and make her so mad but no matter what, in the end, she would still be so nice to you.  And all of my life, my mom was a provider. My mom always made sure we had the latest clothes, shoes and always made sure we had food to eat in the house. As our mom, she always put us before herself and would only buy some of her own stuff here and there. Whenever we wanted to go to the mall, or online, and try to buy something for ourselves, she would always say “save your money” and then she would be the one to get it for us.

That was the person my mom was and that’s why I’m so grateful and so blessed that I had a mom like that. Whenever anybody was feeling down and needed a good hug, my mom would be the best person to hug and get a laugh from. She was such a loving person. My mom loved everyone. We would go to the stores, the malls, and she would always show us someone new she met. Everyone loved her. She just spread her positive energy everywhere. She loved helping people and, of course, she loved her family.

Her favorite thing to do with us was to shop, take family pictures, and definitely go places we've never been before. Before she passed, we went to San Francisco because she always wanted to go there. She loved it. I saw how happy she was and we were also so happy too.

She’s that person that no one will ever forget no matter what.

My mom was the funniest person you could ever meet. She had these really funny catch phrases that she would say and it was just so funny. I remember she would say things like “Jesus Christ and latter day saints” “y’all stay with y’all faces in the phones” “don’t ask for nothing else” (then she buys us more stuff) “why y’all so loud” then says “why y’all so quiet” “stop hollering” and way more. Not one day can go by without laughing with my mom.

We all love her so much and miss her. She also always knew what she wanted. She had so much dedication to get stuff done. Before she passed she was going to move my family into a house. She wanted me to go to college and now, I’m there. For my mom, my job now is to graduate for her and make her proud. I will do my best and make sure I will do everything that I knew she wanted me to do.