A hush fell over the Fort Lawn Community Center this past Saturday as a princess entered the gala hall with her parents.
“Isn’t She Lovely” began playing, and all eyes were on the featured guest, Teressa Amanda Mackey, whose studded crown was out-sparkled only by her eyes as she took in the adoring crowd amidst the pink and white decorations.
Nearly 100 friends, family and loved ones wearing their finest formal wear gathered to celebrate Teressa’s Sweet 16 birthday. Many had tears in their eyes as they watched Teressa in a shimmering white gown stand between the two people who made this day possible, a day doctors said would never come.
“She is my princess,” said her mother, Marlene Mackey, stepping aside to give Teressa the spotlight. “You don’t have to birth a child to love a child. You don’t have to birth a child for a child to become your own.”
Children and adults joined in singing Mother Goose nursery rhymes. Some danced a jig in their Sunday shoes. Though she is nonverbal, Teressa, an eighth grader at A.R. Rucker Middle School, is very expressive. Her smile, laughter and wide-eyed joy said more than words can capture.
Sixteen years ago, Teressa was born with spina bifida, hydrocephaly and cerebral palsy. Doctors told her birth parents she would likely not live to see her first birthday. But then two life-saving surgeries inserted a feeding tube and a shunt to relieve pressure on her brain.
Eventually, her birth parents found the special needs too challenging. A choking incident resulted in a three-month hospital stay when she was 8 years old. Teressa weighed only 18 pounds. Social Services began looking for placement.
In stepped Marlene Mackey, a therapeutic foster parent for over 20 years, with a loving heart and an unending supply of patience, understanding and energy.
The doctors and specialists trained Mackey for the physical care Teressa needed. She and her husband, Menzell, cared for Teressa for four years before the adoption was final in 2012.
The consistent care and nurturing allowed Teressa to grow stronger. She now weighs 76 pounds, and her yearly visits to the gastroenterologist have been reduced from four to only one. She is in a self-contained class at A.R. Rucker.
Mackey, a junior pastor at Mount Olive Holiness Church, takes no personal credit for what she does. Teressa is only one of five children who the Mackeys care for as their own.
The others are 20-year-old Tevin, Jamilah, 14, Jamichael, 11, and 5-year-old Jamarcus.
She has had Tevin and Jamarcus since they were babies. Jamilah and Jamichael are siblings, and the Mackeys will finalize their adoption within the next month.
“I cannot attribute being able to be renewed and refreshed every morning except it comes from God,” Mackey said.“I get up early, sometimes as early as 5 a.m., to have a little devotional time before the kids get up, and that refreshes me for the entire whole day. No matter how much I have on my plate in the course of one day, God helps me get through it.”
Caring for medically fragile children often results in long hospital stays and special training. Mackey is a part of the S.C. Mentor Network, which serves children with intellectual and developmental disabilities, as well as youth and families with emotional, behavioral and medical issues.
The other children
Jamarcus was born four months premature. When Mackey became involved in his care, he had been in the hospital for nine months and had missed the opportunity to bond with his mother. Marlene drove to Levine Children’s Hospital in Charlotte every day for five weeks to hold Jamarcus in preparation for bringing him home.
She held him close so he would know her smell, and she read to him so he would know her voice.
“When I brought him home, it was like I brought my own baby home,” she said.
Once home, she gave him breathing treatments every four hours. Otherwise he would have had to remain in the hospital, and Mackey wasn’t having that. She drove him to the pediatrician every day for several weeks to be sure his lungs were clear. She did all this while caring for Teressa, Tevin, Jamichael and Jamilah.
Mackey has one birth child, Malcolm Williams, now 42. He and his wife, Jamesila, are following in his mother’s footsteps and became licensed therapeutic foster parents in 2015.
“All my life, I have seen them be a blessing to other people, and that is what I want to do now, be a blessing to other people,” Williams said.
Williams said he might be her only birth child, but he has many brothers and sisters. The Mackeys have provided foster care to 35 children over the past two decades.
“Malcolm came along early in my life,” Mackey said. “I had to finish my last year of high school as a mother while I worked in the J.P. Stevens mill in Great Falls.”
Marlene met Menzell when Malcolm was 5. They married a year later and will celebrate their 37th wedding anniversary this Thursday. He has been “Pops” to Malcolm and the foster children, who came along after Malcolm graduated from high school.
‘A precious friend’
Saturday’s party for Teressa was a celebration of love for a little girl not expected to survive and a woman who would not give up on her. Nearly 25 relatives and church members joined to make the party possible for Pastor Marlene and her princess.
Mackey, humble and grateful, quickly credits others for helping her out. She said her parents helped her when she was a teen mother and her husband helps her now when he is home from his job at U.S. Foods.
Among the guests were Teressa’s former teacher Leanne White and A.R. Rucker Middle School Principal Anita Watts.
“Marlene is always so calm,” White said.
“Marlene is a precious lady and a precious friend,” said Charlotte resident Gwendolyn McIntyre. “It is amazing the love she gives these children. I just wanted to share in it.”
Mackey took a minute to gaze at the loved ones joined together to celebrate Teressa and to and support her. She had been planning this party since January.
“I’m so full. I could cry. It almost feels like a wedding. I’m happy and excited,” Mackey said. “There is so much help and support from family and friends.”
Mackey reports that she has grown spiritually from taking care of the children. She hopes others will become foster parents and is sometimes disheartened by the sad stories of foster care gone wrong and is grateful to share her story.
“It’s been an amazing journey, and I thank God. I can’t take credit for the strength over the years. He has empowered me and equipped me and given me the grace to do all the things from my teen years until now,” she said.
Mackey realizes there are easier ways to make a difference, and easier ways to serve. But she knows she was meant to do this.
“I really believe this is what God intended for me to do in this life – to care for, love and minister children,” she said.
“It was my calling in life.”
8/17/16
Follow Reporter Mandy Catoe on Twitter @MandyCatoeTLN or contact her at (803) 283-1152
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