Living A Full Life
Wanda Hawkins-Barber, Ms Wheelchair Maryland 2019, with Maryland State’s Attorney Aisha Braveboy at Drive Focused, Sober and Safe Campaign launch April 2019. PHOTO: AMIR STOUDAMIRE // PRINCE GEORGE’S SUITE MAGAZINE & MEDIA
The Second Life Of Wanda Hawkins-Barber
By Raoul Dennis // Photography By Amir Stoudamire
The rain was constant that night in 2004 but there was no problem for Wanda Hawkins who was driving home on Route 183 from her job at Charlotte Hall Veterans Home in Charlotte Hall Maryland.
At 39, she knew the roads and was an experienced driver. She was experienced enough to signal the driver coming toward her whose high beams were on in an attempt to get the other motorist to turn off the pressing headlights.
But the other driver didn’t switch to low beams as is standard when opposing side drivers are passing one another. Instead the driver veered across the double yellow lines toward Hawkins for a head on collision.
To avoid the head on collision, Hawkins drove off the road, hit a tree and crashed.
Wanda Hawkins woke up in the hospital three days later as a T-4 paraplegic.
The accident, believed to have been caused by an impaired driver, was not the reason that the now Wanda Hawkins-Barber, better known as Ms. Wheelchair 2019, attended the ‘Drive Focused, Sober and Safe Campaign Launch’ April 27.
She was there to talk about what life can be after the tragedy.
“I wanted to tell my story and let them know that I am a survivor. After moving out of the nursing home, I met [and married] my husband, Alonzo. Just because you have a disability, it should not stop you from living your full life,” Hawkins-Barber says.
And she did tell her story. With a platform provided by the State’s Attorney’s Office led by Aisha Braveboy and held at the Southern Maryland Technology and Recreation Center, nearly 200 residents, county leaders, first responders, health professionals, counselors, legal and business leaders and over a dozen sponsors heard Hawkins-Barber as she shared her story from the unique perspective of a survivor of an unnecessary motor vehicle crash.
The event was sparked by a spate of tragic auto accidents in the county that are rapidly rising. The accidents have claimed the lives of whole families – including children – and are too often caused by speed, distraction or the influence of drugs or alcohol.
“An overwhelming number of people came out this morning and through the afternoon to send a message that they care and that we are about saving lives in Prince George’s County and that’s what we all intend to do together,” Braveboy said after the forum.
Hawkins-Barber says that God has given her a second life.
The accident trapped her in a nursing home for three and a half years and it may have been for life.
“They told me that they didn’t know what to do with me at the nursing home,” Hawkins-Barber says after her rehabilitation. She was in a limbo between the crash that took away her old life and a link to help her to start a new one. But she didn’t let that stop her. The young woman with the determined spirit and a broad smile wanted to live a normal life. “I wanted to get out of the nursing home and back into the community. One day when I came back to my room there was a pamphlet for me for an organization called ‘Money Follows the Person.’
Money Follows the Person, a Medicaid funded program, helps people in nursing homes come back into the community.
The program was the key Hawkins-Barber sought. Today, she and her husband, Alonzo, have raised a daughter and now have two grandchildren. She works at the Maryland-National Capital Park & Planning Commission as a CSR at Fairland Sports and Aquatics Center. She also works at Independence Now as an Options Counselor. And she volunteers in going out to nursing homes teaching others about the value of the organization and people who helped her.
But the story doesn’t stop there. After urging by Ms. Wheelchair Maryland 2010 Shannon Minnick, and nomination, Hawkins-Barber accepted the application to potentially become Ms. Wheelchair Maryland. The pageant and title are based on advocacy work by women and men across the nation.
The Glenarden resident earned the 2019 title and will compete at the national level.
She plans to launch a non-profit organization that will provide toiletries and clothing to nursing home residents while continuing to spread the word about programs such as ‘Money Follows the Person’.
She seeks a wheelchair accessible vehicle in order to get started.
“I am grateful and thankful to God that He spared my life to allow me to live another life,” says Hawkins-Barber. “I survived the accident and now I’m surviving life. I am able to go out and speak for someone else. My message was well received today because no one knows that a person with a disability could even become Ms. Wheelchair Maryland,” she says.
Braveboy and others in the room who were transfixed by Ms. Wheelchair Maryland’s story also look to the future. “We will work with our churches to get this message out [over the next few months] and we will hold an additional panel event around safety on the roads and getting better equipment in the hands of law enforcement,” Braveboy says.
She notes that her office will work with the legislature to develop stronger penalties as well. Braveboy recognized the number of county groups that are working on the issue, especially the Driving It Home campaign, led by councilmember Monique Anderson-Walker’s office.
“I think individual pipelines are fine,” she says of the numerous efforts to change driving culture in the area. “We can always work together but every group has a constituency that they can reach. We want people to be reached whether it’s through ‘Drive Focused, Sober and Safe Campaign’ or the ‘Driving it Home Campaign’ spearheaded by my good friend Monique Anderson-Walker or through church organization campaigns. Whoever is in the best position to get this message out, I think they should. It’s great.”
Hawkins-Barber’s message is simple:
“Don’t let the tragedy be bigger than you. You can be bigger than the tragedy by prayer and faith and trust in God.”
