By Bob Arnold
Until the recent holiday season, Lauragail Grubbs never considered herself a Christmas person.
“For most of the world, Christmas is a once-a-year event about getting gifts rather than about the birth of Christ and the every day meaning of saving us to live joyously loving each other,” she says. “I never wanted to celebrate an event during which we forget what it is really all about.”
This Christmas was a little different for Grubbs, however. In the wake of a robbery at the Wesson truck stop on Sylvarena Road in which she saw her Uncle Vince shot and killed, she experienced family, friends and even acquaintances giving her the love and support she needed as she not only recovered from the trauma, but culminated a pregnancy with the birth of her second daughter, Joey Elizabeth. As Christmas day approached, she also recalled the love and support she received during a period of post partem psychosis following the birth of her first daughter, Tateam Isley, now nine years old, the 2022 drug overdose/murder of her younger brother Hank and the death of a beloved aunt.
“I have discovered the year-round joy and love of Christmas, and wanted to begin introducing it to my two daughters during the most recent Christmas season,” says Grubbs.
Born Laura Gail at Hazlehurst on April 10, 1995 (she now goes by her combined first and middle names as Lauragail), Grubbs grew up in the Wesson area with her parents, Hank (“Bubba”), a truck driver, and Christy, who worked with pre-school children; an older sister, Ashley, and her younger brother, Hank. She attended the Precious Moments pre-school center and Wesson Attendance Center from kindergarten through high school.
“As a child, I was a bit of a misfit and tom boy,” she recalls. “I played with reptiles and brought stray animals home. “I played the trumpet in the school band in the sixth and seventh grades until I accidentally broke it. In the seventh through eleventh grades, I played soccer on the school team.”
Local patrons of the old Porches restaurant may remember Lauragail as a waitress with her sister, mom and aunt. She worked there from ages 14 to 19 years old. From 2008 to 2013, she waitressed at Line 58 in Hazlehurst. She also worked at a Hazlehurst thrift store and has assisted Dentville-based CMT crews engaged in restoration and repairs of homes, porches, plumbing and roofing. For the past five years, she has worked off and on at Uncle Ray’s eatery and store across from the entrance to Lake Lincoln State Park, where she started as a bait girl, retrieving worms, minnows, crickets and other lures for fishermen; and now is assistant manager with responsibilities for property maintenance, the cash register, helping customers find convenience store items, cooking and serving meals.
In 2015 after the birth of her first child, post-partem psychosis started a dark period in Grubbs’ life.
“I knew the way I felt about my daughter wasn’t okay, and I walked away from rearing her into a rebellious life style of partying and bad decisions,” she recounts. “I used speed and smoked weed. With the deaths of my brother and aunt, I tried to be close to them by being near death – not trying to die, but not trying to stay alive, either.”
But those times also brought good people into Grubbs’ life as well as some bad ones. She is particularly grateful, she says, to her older sister who has reared Tateam Isley, and points to supportive friends and other family members, and new people she has met along the way who have helped -- like Brother Eddie Mayer at Spring Hills Baptist Church, where she taught Sunday School to a class of toddlers and children up to seven years old.
Grubbs recalls, after the killing of her Uncle Vince in the summer, her uncle’s stepson, Aren Case, also offered her some simple advice: “Don’t let his death be a waste.” She remembered it before Christmas last month at the old camper where she lives in the It section of Martinsville when she reflected on being a Christmas gift for her children, as others have been for her over the years: “I want to be someone my kids can be proud of – always kind with a smile, never saying things out of anger, telling people you love them, trying to make things right, forgiving.”
So Lauragail has become a Christmas person as the challenges of life have confronted her.
What are your hobbies?
My pets. Three dogs, a snake, gecko, bass and turtles. I enjoy small adventures. Going to the creek and picking up stray animals along the way.
What do you read?
I am into science and nature, but I’m a show-me hands-on girl, who doesn’t always understand what I read.
How about movies or theater?
I like police and crime television shows – Chicago Fire and Chicago PD about first responders -- and the cartoons kids watch – Bubble Guppies and Krat Brothers.
Do you have a special interest in music?
I sing in the shower and to my kids, and played a trumpet until I broke it.
What would you do with the winnings if you won the lottery?
I would open savings accounts for my kids, leave my old camper for a better place to live, start a shelter for unloved animals and help other people at rock bottom in bad situations.
How would you change the world?
I would teach people that it’s the little things in life that count, and try to help the world recapture more innocent days before technology.
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