The Blues

Sometimes it would help if we could cry but it's harder to cry when you get older - harder to just let it all out and get over the hurtful, handicapping language and labels fired at people with disabilities. You feel like crying but the tears won't come. Raw emotions seem to be held in check by intellect, etiquette, protocol and other learned restraints. Thank goodness, there are other ways to cry. The blues was created so we could cry all night and never shed a tear.

The blues crosses everyone's path, especially those with disabilities, and it has crossed JCIL's path more times than we can remember. We had the opportunity to serve family members of Jackson's legendary blues man, Sonny Boy Williams. And once, a few years ago, blues great Jessie Mae Hemphill (featured in video above) crossed our path.

Although Jessie Mae did not live in our service area - not even in our state but in Northerm Mississippi, which is not too far away - we learned that the talented blues singer had fallen on extremely hard times. She was a stroke survivor and could no longer perform and was being evicted from her home.

JCIL contacted her, got some information and then referred her to a Mississippi Center for Independent Living. The last report we heard was that a contractor (a blues fan, of course) was helping her get a home in Senatobia. Later we heard that Jessie Mae had died.

Blues music is an expression of hard times but it also includes a little, often overlooked ingredient - a ray of hope. If you're feeling a little down, listen to Jessie Mae - feel sorry for yourself for a couple of minutes - then put your mind in gear, make some plans and dream awhile. As Jessie Mae Hemphill said in her song, "trouble don't last always." There are things out there to do and you can do them.

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The Jackson Center for Independent Living (JCIL) is a nonprofit, tax-deductible 501-C-3 United Way agency. We work with people with significant disabilities and the Deaf Community in achieving their Independent Living goals while assisting the community in eliminating barriers to Independent Living.