Speaker 1: And we continue with our American stories, and up next,
Speaker 1: we're going to hear from Donna Howard tell the story
Speaker 1: of her daughter, Cassie, who was a teenager was met
Speaker 1: with a diagnosis that changed her life. You'll find out
Speaker 1: where that diagnosis has led Donna to today, to a
Speaker 1: place where she can help not only her daughter Cassie,
Speaker 1: but others under similar circumstances, and all while shedding light
Speaker 1: on an illness that had kept them in the dark
Speaker 1: for so many years.
Speaker 2: I was director of ideology at a hospital here in
Speaker 2: Mississippi for many many years, moved to Arkansas, got married,
Speaker 2: had three children, and in nineteen ninety Cassie became ill
Speaker 2: on her fourteenth birthday. It was a Sunday afternoon. I
Speaker 2: remember it very well. She came in the kitchen that
Speaker 2: day and said, the new kids on the block are
Speaker 2: saying happy birthday to me through the air conditioner.
Speaker 3: And that was AHA moment.
Speaker 2: I began to think back, and she had been telling
Speaker 2: me things and I had not paid attention. I say this,
Speaker 2: and I don't think people really understand when I say
Speaker 2: she didn't sleep till she was five years old, And
Speaker 2: I think now, was she hearing the voices and that
Speaker 2: was normal to her. But there were many many nights
Speaker 2: we didn't sleep. So I called the pediatrician and I said,
Speaker 2: we need to talk to you, and so we met
Speaker 2: him at the emergency room, and after about an hour
Speaker 2: of him and her talking, he came out and he said,
Speaker 2: she's got some serious, serious issues.
Speaker 3: She was in and out of hospitals.
Speaker 2: Then it took a long time to get a diagnosis
Speaker 2: because a lot of doctors didn't know a lot about schizophrenia.
Speaker 3: It took us a year. We went out to UCLA to.
Speaker 2: The Neuropsychiatric Institute, and that's where we got our diagnosis
Speaker 2: of chronic paranoid schizophrenia at age fifteen. She was having
Speaker 2: such a hard time that year that I don't think
Speaker 2: it really resonated with her what chronic paranoid schizophrenia was.
Speaker 2: She just knew she was hearing these voices that were
Speaker 2: very real to her. It was very scary for her.
Speaker 2: It was hard to find anybody to treat her. It
Speaker 2: was just a nightmare because I couldn't get any help
Speaker 2: and I couldn't find any peace for and I also
Speaker 2: had two other children at home. She went to school
Speaker 2: until she was in the tenth grade, and I finally
Speaker 2: took her out because here she was a quiet, shy
Speaker 2: little girl sitting over in the corner crying. So after
Speaker 2: six months of them calling me every day, you know,
Speaker 2: we don't know what to do with her, I finally
Speaker 2: took her out of school. So I had to stay
Speaker 2: home and take care of her and educate myself on
Speaker 2: what to expect and how to handle what we were
Speaker 2: going through.
Speaker 3: It was extremely difficult.
Speaker 2: Time because you didn't talk about My family wouldn't talk
Speaker 2: to me about it. They didn't really understand it. And
Speaker 2: that's when we decided she needed to get a job
Speaker 2: that that might help. And we tried many jobs, and
Speaker 2: I even paid one place to let her work there.
Speaker 2: I paid them just to let her come in and
Speaker 2: clean their equipment, just so she'd have something to do.
Speaker 3: Then she got a job and.
Speaker 2: Worked at this grocery store, but the people were not
Speaker 2: kind to her. They didn't understand her. She was twenty
Speaker 2: years old. She looked like she should be able to
Speaker 2: act like a girl woman and make decisions, and she couldn't.
Speaker 2: And every day she would come home, I hate my job.
Speaker 3: I hate my job. You know, I don't want to
Speaker 3: do this.
Speaker 2: So I was in Nashville shopping with my sister in
Speaker 2: law and we went into a thrift store and we
Speaker 2: got to talking to the owner and he had opened
Speaker 2: it to give his daughter a job because she had autism.
Speaker 2: And we walked out the door and my sister in
Speaker 2: law looked at me and said, you're going to do that.
Speaker 3: Aren't you. It took me four years. I retired.
Speaker 2: Then I put what retirement money I had into it,
Speaker 2: and I opened the store here in Oxford to employ
Speaker 2: persons living with mental illness in a safe work environment
Speaker 2: in hopes of helping them achieve independence and self respect.
Speaker 2: Cassie was thrilled. She was very excited that she wasn't
Speaker 2: going to have to work at the grocery store anymore.
Speaker 2: We started out with two employees. I had started getting
Speaker 2: donations before I opened the store, and so we had
Speaker 2: a few things, not a lot. But the first day
Speaker 2: we opened, a lady stole from me the very first day,
Speaker 2: and I'm like, oh, my gosh, I hadn't thought about that.
Speaker 2: Everything we sell is donated. We don't buy anything. We
Speaker 2: have to depend on the people in the community to donate.
Speaker 2: There were lots of paydays on Thursday night, I'd say, lord,
Speaker 2: please put the money in the bank, because paydays tomorrow
Speaker 2: I don't have it. And we always managed to make payroll.
Speaker 2: I always didn't get paid, but we always managed to
Speaker 2: pay the employees. It was a real learning process. We
Speaker 2: really just struggle financially, just get by and keep our
Speaker 2: doors open. But when the pandemic hit, people were home
Speaker 2: cleaning out their closets and their attics and their garages.
Speaker 2: Cassie and I and my niece worked at the store
Speaker 2: every day just to keep the donations out of the
Speaker 2: parking lot because people were.
Speaker 3: Bringing them in like crazy.
Speaker 2: Not only did we get all the donations, people learned
Speaker 2: about us that didn't know about us before, and since
Speaker 2: then we are we're doing really well.
Speaker 3: Today. We have about fifteen employees.
Speaker 2: It's very rewarding. Most of my employees have been there
Speaker 2: a long time. I have one young man that's worked
Speaker 2: with me ever since we opened. He and Cassie were
Speaker 2: friends when we opened, and they love working there.
Speaker 3: They do a good job.
Speaker 2: But it's like a new day every day because just
Speaker 2: because you told somebody that those go in the floral
Speaker 2: section one day, the next day you have to tell
Speaker 2: them again. Sometimes my customers will mistake my employees for
Speaker 2: being rude, and I'll pull them aside.
Speaker 3: I don't know.
Speaker 2: I'll explain the situation. You know, here's our brochure, this
Speaker 2: is what we're about. And most of the time they're
Speaker 2: very understanding and then they're apologetic. But we do have
Speaker 2: people that are just downright rud and I just say,
Speaker 2: we are here to give these people a safe work
Speaker 2: environment where they can feel comfortable, and it's not tolerated
Speaker 2: because all we want is to be loved and to be.
Speaker 3: Treated with kindness. That's it.
Speaker 2: They work very hard, several of them. I have to say, Okay,
Speaker 2: you need to sit down and take a break because
Speaker 2: they work hard. The joke around the store is some
Speaker 2: days when we would be overwhelmed, my niece, who has
Speaker 2: helped me from the beginning, she would say, would you
Speaker 2: please quit praying for furniture because God always supplies. I
Speaker 2: knew when I walked out that door in Nashville, if
Speaker 2: that's what he wanted me to do. I didn't have
Speaker 2: any idea how I was going to do it. I
Speaker 2: had been through so much with Cassie being sick and
Speaker 2: not being able to work at times. But we never
Speaker 2: went hungry and we never did without. So I have
Speaker 2: a pretty strong fate and I knew that through this
Speaker 2: he would provide and he has.
Speaker 3: It's pretty awesome.
Speaker 2: A dream is open more stores and more cities to
Speaker 2: help more people, because I mean, I don't know what
Speaker 2: Cassie would do, and I don't know what the other kids.
Speaker 2: And I call them kids, they're not kids, they're young adults,
Speaker 2: but I don't know what they would do if they
Speaker 2: didn't have a place to go to. I have a
Speaker 2: young man that came to me at the time, he
Speaker 2: couldn't count change, and his confidence.
Speaker 3: Just grew and grew as he worked for me.
Speaker 2: And now he has moved out of his mother's home,
Speaker 2: has moved to Nashville and is working at a store
Speaker 2: and he's assistant manager. And it just thrills me because
Speaker 2: look what he's done, and had he sat at home
Speaker 2: and not done anything, it would be such a waste
Speaker 2: and it's great to be a part of that. I
Speaker 2: take no credit for this at all. It's a god thing.
Speaker 2: He's just using me, and I just I tell Cassie,
Speaker 2: I said, some good has come from all the heartache
Speaker 2: and paying the Cassies had to go through it.
Speaker 1: And a great job on that piece by Madison, And
Speaker 1: a special thanks to Donna Howard, the founder of Holding
Speaker 1: Hands resale shop right here in Oxford, Mississippi. And we
Speaker 1: tell stories from all around the country, and every once
Speaker 1: in a while you'll hear stories from where we live too.
Speaker 1: Oxford is a beautiful small town about an hour south
Speaker 1: of Memphis, Tennessee. And well, like all communities, we come
Speaker 1: together when we need to. And my goodness, finding out
Speaker 1: that your daughter at the age of fourteen is diagnosed
Speaker 1: with chronic paranoid schizophrenia, that's a tough one. And what
Speaker 1: do you do about it? Well, Donna, well she taught
Speaker 1: us all what to do about it. And she learned
Speaker 1: about it from someone else in Nashville who taught her
Speaker 1: what to do about it. A beautiful mother daughter story,
Speaker 1: Donna Howard's story, her daughter Cassie's story too. Here our
Speaker 1: American Stories