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Plan Was Sound As A Dollar

Tribune photo by D'ANN LAWRENCE WHITE

Ray-Ray Kelly, 11, hands his mother, Phyllis Marshall, some boxes of chocolates, courtesy of Deborah L. Williams, middle, owner of Bellafia Chocolate Boutique in Winthrop Town Centre in Riverview.

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By D'ANN LAWRENCE WHITE

dlwhite@tampatrib.com

Published: January 7, 2009

RIVERVIEW - She doesn't normally impose on perfect strangers, but there was something about the situation that impelled Allysa Forrest to dig deeper.

She was paying for gas in a Brandon convenience store when a little boy approached the store clerk asking if there was anything in the store he could purchase for a dollar.

When he was told there was nothing that could be bought for a dollar there, the youngster was sure the clerk must be wrong and insisted she look again. When the clerk turned him away a second time, Forrest followed the disappointed boy out to the parking lot, where his mother was waiting for him.

His mother, Phyllis Marshall of Brandon, admitted to Forrest that her 11-year-old son, Ray-Ray Kelly, asked her to wait outside while he went into the store to purchase a Christmas gift for her with his only dollar.

It had been a tough year for Marshall and her son.

"I was in real estate and lost my job," Marshall said.

They lived on her savings for a while but, without a job and health insurance, she couldn't afford the doctor's visits and medications she needed to treat her insulin-dependent diabetes.

As a result, she was hospitalized earlier this year.

In the meantime, their Riverview home was foreclosed on, and the two found themselves without a home.

Eventually, they were able to get into an apartment in Bloomingdale, but they were evicted when they couldn't afford the rent one month.

They moved to an apartment in Plant City. But Marshall soon realized the area was a haven for gangs and drug dealers, not the kind of place she wanted to raise her son.

The mother and son currently are living in an apartment off Kings Avenue that Marshall admits she can't really afford. The rent is $1,075 a month, more than the disability check she receives.

"We're barely making it," she said. "We have nothing but our faith and each other. But that's a lot. I thank God every day for my son. He's the reason I wake up each day."

A child who says, "Yes, sir," "Yes, ma'am," and "Thank you" in a time when the typical responses from children are "Yeah" and "Huh," Ray-Ray has had to take on a lot of responsibility at an early age, Marshall said.

"Because I'm often sick and can't get out of bed, he's had to learn how to cook, clean house, do laundry and even give me my shots," she said.

Upon hearing the story, Forrest wanted to do something special for Ray-Ray for Christmas. She talked to Cap Pooler, owner of Bike Works at 6046 Winthrop Town Centre Ave., Riverview, and her husband, Brian, the store manager, who decided to give the youngster a new 3700 Trek 21-speed mountain bike for Christmas.

As word spread about the family's plight through other business tenants in Winthrop Town Centre, more donations began coming in.

When Ray-Ray and his mother arrived at Bike Works on Christmas Eve, he not only was presented a new bike and bike helmet courtesy of Bike Works and Ben Adams, owner of Moe's Southwest Grill, but there also were other gifts waiting for Ray-Ray and his mom as well.

Deborah L. Williams, owner of Bellafia Chocolate Boutique, allowed Ray-Ray to present his mother boxes of chocolates, which he declared was much better than anything he could have purchased at a convenience store for a dollar.

Williams also handed Marshall a donation from a customer to go along with a monetary donation from Winthrop developer John Sullivan.

First Choice salon donated a free haircut and hair products. Publix donated gift certificates and toys. Heaven Scent donated bath products. Adams contributed Shane's Barbecue gift certificates. And Forrest presented Ray-Ray with a hooded sweatshirt to wear while he's riding his new bike.

Ray-Ray needed little instruction before he was traversing the parking lot of the town center on his new black-and-silver mountain bike.

His mother looked on with tears rolling down her cheeks.

"I believe in God, and I believe in angels," she said.

Reporter D'Ann Lawrence White can be reached at (813) 657-4524.

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