‘Having God in my corner helps,’ says Fort Worth father raising his 6 young children

On Monday, the day started at 4 a.m. for Ivery Williams because he was worried about thunderstorms and how he would get his six children to The Leadership Academy at Como Elementary without them getting soaked.

By 6 a.m., the 50-year-old Williams had no time to worry about the rain because he had to get his kids up and ready for school, one by one.

“Chop, chop,” Williams said as he opened a bedroom room door. “Let’s go. Time to get up.”

Within minutes, 6-year-old Iveryana Williams was up. Then there was 11-year-old Elijah Williams followed by 4-year-old Ezra Williams. Nehemiah Williams, 10, Dayvon Williams, 8, and Darryl Shepherd, 12, filled up the table for a breakfast of Cinnamon Toast Crunch with Value Corner milk.

In March, four of the children were involved in a horrific traffic accident, leaving three of them in wheelchairs for a short time.

Williams and ex-girlfriend had shared responsibilities for the six children, five of them biologically his, but he has raised Darryl since he was a baby so he considers him family.

After the crash, the six children were subsequently placed in his full care, at least Monday through Friday.

“I stepped up,” Williams said in a recent interview with the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. “You know these kids need us, they are our future, and if we don’t do something about it now, then our future is lost.”

Some of the staff at The Leadership Academy took notice, seeing that Williams was taking a financial hit from the coronavirus pandemic and raising six children.

Because he had to care for his injured children around the clock, the Fort Worth man lost his job and fell behind on his car payments, eventually having his car repossessed.

That’s why some of the school staff created a GoFundMe account on May 10 for Williams and his kids.

“Despite the challenges he is facing, he has never asked anyone for help and greets everyone he meets with the warmest, most genuine spirit,” school nurse Chelsea Brandewie wrote on the GoFundMe account. “He is the type of father that any child would be lucky to have.”

And the help arrived and it keeps coming.

Initially, the goal was $5,000 to help Williams get a used car and provide food and shelter for his family.

Within days, that goal was reached and a new $20,000 goal has been established. As of Thursday, more than $15,000 had been raised.

School counselor Tomeka McGee said Williams’ driving force is his kids.

“He really loves his children,” McGee said in telephone interview. “We don’t see a lot of dads at the school these days.”

Single-parent households are nothing new in Tarrant County. From 2015 to 2019, 26.2 percent of families in the county were single-parent households, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. For that same time period, Dallas County had 30.5 percent.

The statistic is important because adults and children in single-parent households are at a higher risk for adverse health effects, such as emotional and behavioral problems, compared to their peers, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

Born in Illinois, Williams said he has led a “hard” life that has included brushes with the law when he was younger.

But he left Illinois and moved to Fort Worth, where he has settled down in the Como community for the last 20 years.

For the past few years he has helped the children’s mother when he had the chance.

On March 4, the boyfriend of the children’s mother was involved in a major traffic accident that injured four of the children, leaving three in a hospital for several days.

“And that was the change, a chance for me to get more involved with my kids,” Williams said. “You know as a father, as a Black man.”

The plan was that he has the children Monday through Friday, and their mother takes care of them on the weekend and holidays.

So since the middle of March, Williams has spent hours walking and riding the Metro bus with the youngest five kids to and from school. His oldest rides a school bus to Monnig Middle School.

Generally, they start waiting on the morning bus after 6:30 a.m., and he gets on the bus to pick up Ezra at 2 p.m. Sometimes the two stay on the bus and ride it around until 4 p.m. when they go pick up the other four kids.

He has gotten rides from friends and staffers at the elementary school, and financial help from his church, Faith Temple Church in Fort Worth, and Cornerstone Assistance Network, a faith-based human services nonprofit organization serving Tarrant County.

But the school morning chores belong to Williams and his six children, and it’s going to be that way until school ends for the summer on June 18.

“What makes Ivery a unique dad, is that he is quick and willing to state and own his deficiencies and past transgressions in a transparent and authentic way,” said Ashley Parrish, the school social worker at The Leadership Academy at Como Elementary, in a Thursday email. “He has not been the perfect father and a few years ago it all came to a head. I admire that he has fundamentally turned his life around.”

Parrish said Williams is consciously making decisions in the best interest of his kids.

“It’s so powerful when a parent apologizes and owns their wrongdoings,” Parrish said. “These kids are learning an invaluable lesson by watching Ivery own his behavior while stepping up on their behalf.”

Once breakfast was over on Monday morning, Ivery Williams reminded his kids that washing their faces, brushing their teeth and combing their hair was next. All of them.

The before-school preparations took less than an hour, and all six kids and their dad were ready to face Mother Nature and head to school.

It doesn’t end in June. Williams is making summer plans for the kids at the AB Christian Learning Center, a summer program. And he hopes to get a used car soon and get a new job.

“The door opened up for me to care for all of my children,” Williams said. “Having God in my corner helps.”