Adults remember their 'angels' at the haven that is CAPA

Henry Tariel Williams of Seabrook has to work Saturday when he'd rather be at the Child Abuse Prevention Association's first Angel Walk fundraiser. But he doesn't mind. At least he's alive.

"When I think back on what CAPA did for me when I was a kid," he said, "I can see there's no way I'd be where I am today without them. I'd probably be in prison somewhere, or worse, I'd be dead."

Williams was about 10 when he and two younger sisters were removed from his home. He remembers it as a home marred by adults abusing alcohol and other drugs.

Even on nights the yard wasn't full of blue lights flashing, life there was dysfunctional.

"When you're in a home like that, the adults don't care what you do," he said.

The night the children left, police were there because his mother was being abused.

When the three children needed it most, CAPA's Open Arms Shelter was there for them.

Williams is 31 now, and he and his wife, Rosa, have six children. He's a cook at a Beaufort restaurant. Rosa works at Walmart on Robert Smalls Parkway. Although Henry can't be there, Rosa will lead a team from Walmart when the Angel Walk steps off Saturday morning at the Henry C. Chambers Waterfront Park in Beaufort.

CAPA depends on these fundraisers -- and volunteers -- to offer emergency shelter when children like Henry need sanity and stability in their lives. It also works to prevent child abuse and neglect.

CAPA is a private, accredited, United Way agency that for 29 years has been dealing with a part of life in Beaufort County that most of us would rather not see face to face. It joins the Department of Social Services, foster parents, the Family Court and guardians ad litem to knit a safety net for children.

Maybe the Angel Walk can raise visibility of this problem and its solutions, in addition to dollars. It gets that name because everyone will be walking for an "angel" who helped them become the person they are.

For Williams, the angels came into his life after he arrived at CAPA.

Ramond Mecherle, his first guardian ad litem, acted on Williams' behalf in court and became a lifelong mentor. "He's basically my dad," said Williams. Margaret Fyfe and Charles Brown were among other angels in Williams' life.

"They showed that they appreciated me," Williams says today. "That's what I felt. They cared about me. They cared about what my future might hold. They cared whether I got in trouble or not. They showed me that I didn't have to fight or do drugs to get by in life. At home, I didn't have that structure."