Thankful People: Traveling a hard road leads to a blessing

2011 will be remembered as the year of God's blessing for Charlene Dalton of Cape Girardeau.

"I always wanted to be a homeowner and now I am one," the spirited grandmother said. Charlene and her two granddaughters took possession of a new Habitat for Humanity house in July.

"This is God's blessing," she said. "I wanted to leave something to my kids and grandkids, and this is the blessing I get to leave them."

But the blessing did not come without hard work. Habitat requires family members to volunteer at the ReStore, on other family homes and their own.

"The first day we came out to work on the house, we had to scrape ice off the concrete slab," said Brianna Shaw, the younger of Dalton's granddaughters.

Both Brianna, 15, and her sister, Gabrielle Dalton, 16, worked alongside their grandmother and many volunteers for months doing framing, dry wall, siding and anything else that needed to be done.

"When we started building I said, 'Please teach me. I want to know everything about building a house.' They did, and all of us became one big family," Charlene said.

She views the home as a blessing from God.

"You work hard and you put your faith in God," she said. "A lot of people beg and plead with God. I don't believe in that. I believe that you say 'Lord, you know what I need before I do,' and I ask him to let his will be done. Then I just block it out of my mind. That's when I get the blessing. That's faith. This house -- it's my blessing."

Charlene, mother of three, readily admits she has not walked an easy road. Born in Cook County, Ill., her family moved to Matthews, Mo., when she was 6. At 14 she got pregnant and had to drop out of school, but she moved forward with her education to get first her GED diploma, then her certified nursing assistant degree.

She has since added a medication aide certification. She is now working on her child development certification, working at a local nursing home, and raising two teenage granddaughters.

Charlene's life changed Jan. 14, 1998, when her daughter Shannon died of a brain aneurysm. Charlene was left to raise Shannon's two daughters, Gabrielle and Brianna.

The three have been living in small apartments for several years but were approved for a Habitat house in 2010.

When volunteers delivered the framing two-by-fours for the house, Charlene said she knew this was truly a blessing from God as a result of her faith.

"There were Scripture verses and Bible pictures on every two-by-four," she said. "Every side. I started to frame the door, and I had to just sit down and cry. I knew we were truly living under the wings of God in this house."

It has taken faith to carry Charlene through because life itself hasn't been easy for her. Her "never-give-up" attitude, however, has more than sustained her and her family.

"She is determined," said longtime friend Janet Blankenship, who volunteered her time along with many others during the building project. "Anything she does, she does it right. If it's a job worth doing, she is going to do it well. When I first met her, she was living in a tiny apartment with one of her granddaughters. Now she has a new house."

Both girls are A students at Cape Girardeau Central High School. Gabrielle has been chosen as a student ambassador to Europe this summer, and Brianna is raising money to tour Europe with a different group of Central students.

Both girls say their grandmother has been a major influence in their lives.

"She's pretty cool," Brianna said. "You expect a grandma to be like, 'Here's some cookies,' and wear her hair in a bun and be in a floral dress, but she's of this generation."

"I teach my granddaughters that they can be anything they want to be if they have commitment and a strong will," Charlene said. "I tell them there are no such words as 'I can't,' but then I have to live this in front of them because actions speak louder than words."

Janet agreed with Charlene's grandchildren that she is a woman who walks the walk.

"We have known one another for a long time, and she constantly surprised me," Janet said. "I'm just waiting for her to make another leap."