Mildred Brockington’s legacy lives on ...

Catherine Mercer is a woman on a mission to keep what her mother started going.

The Orange Park resident is the daughter of the late Mildred Brockington, who died April 23, 2019, in Palatka from lung cancer.

“My mother never smoked,” she said. “It was a surprising diagnosis.”

For years, Brockington and her merry group of helpers, including her husband, Willie of Palatka, would host a Christmas gift ministry and party for a few families in need in the community where they lived. The funds for the ministry and party would come from the Brockingtons’ pockets, as well as donations made by a few area businesses and individuals.

In a story published in the Palatka Daily News in 2018, Brockington said her ministry got started after meeting a little boy who touched her heart. The year was 2010.

“We were going out to eat and we saw these two small kids walking down the road,” Brockington said. “They looked to be around 4 and 6, and were walking toward Jacksonville and we didn’t see any parents.”

Brockington said when she and her husband stopped and talked to the boy, he said he and his little sister were going to Jacksonville, where their big brother lived, so he could buy them some shoes.

It came to light the boy was living with his mother in a travel trailer behind a motel lot on U.S. 17. The mother of seven had just had a baby and thought her other children were outside playing.

Brockington knew Christmas would be bleak for the family of seven children that year, and she couldn’t wait to get to the nearest store to do some shopping.

“That’s how my mother was,” said Mercer, founder of Level Up Foundation in Memory of Mildred Brockington’s Soup for the Soul nonprofit organization. “My mother instilled in me to help when you can and let it be from the heart.”

And that’s exactly what Mercer was doing when she hosted It Ain’t Over Women’s Conference on April 9 at the Rosa K. Ragsdale Family Investment Center. The event was geared toward motivating and uplifting the young women in Putnam County. Mercer partnered with the Palatka Housing Authority’s director of social services, Aaron Robinson.

“The women in the community need direction and often feel as though they have no one to turn to because people do not care or will judge them,” Mercer said. “We all, including myself, have made mistakes, have a past and have needed someone.”

Mercer feels she must reach the young women, namely those 21 and older.

“We must make a difference somehow,” she said. “It does not have to always be financially but a listening ear, an early morning text – “good morning, have a great day” – goes a long way when you wake up feeling down and feel as though there is no hope for your situation. I am a perfect example of what is and use to be doesn’t have to be your present status.”

Mercer plans to do a young men’s conference soon.

“I am expecting an overflow of attendance,” she said. “I can’t do it all, but I won’t give up trying.”

Brockington’s ministry was influenced in remembrance of two of her children who died from crib deaths. Her son, Michael, died at 6 months and her daughter, Tonia, at 2 weeks.

Every year, Brockington would plan the Christmas party on Dec. 19, Tonia’s birthday.

“She was my last child and she and Michael never got a birthday,” Brockington said in the 2018 article. “I will never get over it. I won’t ever forget my children.”

Mercer is thankful for the people in the community who helped make the women’s conference a success this year.

They include Veda Crosland-Holmes, Nu Look Cutz N Styles Barbershop:  Calvin Lewis, TaTaneacha Thomas, Stephanie Johnson-McCaskill, T&T Cleaning Services: Ekierra Nelson, Ticoi Spell, Keashia Williams Thomas, Natona Medlock Whipple, C’crets Hair and Image Group Inc.: Jennifer James, Cierra Mercer, Yahnica Campbell, Palatka Housing Authority: Aaron Robinson, Lillian Bell, Rashawna Mckiver and Kizzy’s Hair & Body Butter: Kizzy Watkins.”

Mercer has other plans to help those in needing the community in remembrance of her mother. Some of those plans include Christmas drives, Thanksgiving dinners with soup made for the needy from her mom’s recipe, public speaking to raise awareness of needs in the community and mentoring workshops. She also provides a notary service for free and is a CPR instructor who plans to hold free classes to anyone age 17 and older.

“I want to continue to do works in Putnam County as my mother Mildred Brockington did,” Mercer said. “My mother would not have had it any other way. I want to keep her name alive through volunteering my services to the community.”

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