Veteran offers helping hand for fellow veterans
By Norma Adams-Wade
Correspondent
Texas Metro News
Personality, kindness, warmth, compassion are words you may as well prepare to hear if you are talking with someone who knows U. S. Army veteran Marquita Foxworth.
At this time when the public spotlight is on America’s annual Veteran’s Day, people like Foxworth who served to keep our country safe easily come to mind.
Coffee is more than a warm beverage for those who have kept America and allies safe
This retired veteran gives a deep meaning to the word service – in the military and far beyond those years in uniform.
She recently started her own nonprofit that will allow her to formally expand services she previously offered voluntarily when she would see someone who needed a helping hand.
Serving others through a new nonprofit
Foxworth, 42, became a real estate broker even before she retired from the military. She is doing even more now that she has formed Caring Senior Service, her nonprofit that addresses non-medical needs of veterans and elder adults who want to remain in their home but need physical assistance to perform daily activities. Her nonprofit — part of a larger franchise – also connects veterans and their families to government resources they may not realize are available to them.
Some non-medical services provided include helping with baths and personal hygiene, shopping errands, dressing, preparing meals, house cleaning, yard care, and transportation to doctors’ appointments. Clients may include veterans, first responders, disabled persons, elders, and any qualified person needing help with life chores. Foxworth also strives to assure veterans or elders that they should not feel embarrassed because they use a personal assistance service.
“There is so much benefit to getting these services and we can do so much to help,” Foxworth said.
What friends say about Foxworth
John O’Donnell, a retire U. S. Marine, and Sharisse Watkins, a retired U. S. Air Force soldier, both met Foxworth through the Black Rifle Coffee Co. veterans’ “meet-up,” a friendship group that gathers 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. each Saturday at the coffee shop at 3201 Tracewood Way, suite 131, in Fort Worth’s Alliance community. Phone 682-394-1220. O’Donnell and Watkins gushed about Foxworth’s magic in coordinating the meetings and making everyone feel warmly welcome.
“At my first meeting I was listening as people were talking,” Watkins recalled. “It was just the way they spoke about her so positively before she even came in the room. … That told me so much about how well people thought of her, and I found their opinions to be true.”
O’Donnell said Foxworth went out of her way to help him locate a home to buy when he was struggling to find the right property.
“Looking out for her brothers and sister who served our country is at the core of her being,” O’Donnell said. “She leads with compassion and dignity, and I am proud to call her my sister in service.”
Childhood, family, military life
Foxworth was born Marquita Harris in Beaumont, Texas, oldest of her parent’s five children. She said she overheard a conversation about military benefits when she was in middle school and even at that young age decided the military would give her a good future. She signed up for the U. S. Army while still a high school senior and left for basic training in Missouri immediately after graduation.
In the Army, she performing drill sergeant duty, gaining the rank of Master Sergeant, was a non-commissioned officer in the aviation division, completed real estate training while still in uniform, retired in 2018, became a full-time realtor, than launched her personal assistant nonprofit.
Husband and children
Foxworth and fellow Army soldier Kevin Foxworth married in 2013 after meeting in military service. Her husband also retired three years ago and now works as an entrepreneur. Marquita Foxworth had a daughter and son from a previous marriage, and the new foursome formed a family that learned to deal with the daughter’s autism and epilepsy. Grief entered the scene when the daughter died three years ago at age 19, and the new family had to find a way to maintain their bond and move forward. Her son is now in college. In Marquita Foxworth’s case, she expanded her service mode, helping other veterans and the elders, and ultimately forming her nonprofit.
Outreach to other veterans
The Black Rifle Coffee Co. in Fort Worth’s Alliance suburb has been a central figure in Foxworth’s service to others. Coffee company founder and CEO Evan Hafer is a former U. S. Army Green Beret soldier who served in Iraq and Afghanistan. He is conservative and a staunch patriotic gun rights advocate. In the military, he loved coffee, and his familiar weapon was an M4 carbine rifle that has the nickname “black rifle” that is similar to an AR-15 rifle. From his rifle and coffee fondness, Hafer devised the name Black Rifle Coffee Co.
A fellow veteran told Foxworth about the coffee shop that welcomed veterans. Looking for other involvements after her daughter’s death, Foxworth visited the coffee shop, ended up helping sell coffee on commission., and ultimately organized a weekly veteran’s meet-up there. The group quickly expanded and flourished.
Being a female in the military
Beyond gender, Foxworth said an overriding lesson for all soldiers “is realizing we don’t have forever to live.” As a female, she said the physical demands of drills and combat training were not much of an issue for her considering that she grew up enjoying sports and competitions that included gymnastics and running track.
“I was not a star,” Foxworth recalls. “But it was a childhood experience I enjoyed.”
Yet, as an adult female in the military, she said she learned to deal with other special situations. One tricky part , she said, is accepting the discomfort of some spouses when a female soldier calls to say hello and check on male “battle buddies.” Foxworth said she learned to be aware of and respect the feelings of cohort’s spouses.
“It’s hard for a female to maintain contact when you just want to check on former military friends you consider your battle buddies,” Foxworth said. “I’ve had some wives tell me, ‘Don’t call my husband again.’ I’ve learned to respect boundaries.”
Pride of service
Paula Johnson is a U. S. Army veteran who works with a different Fort Worth nonprofit, Hope to the Nations, which seeks to end poverty through education and resources. Johnson and Foxworth met at a volunteer project restoring the rundown home of an elderly Fort Worth resident. Johnson said she wishes Foxworth success with her new nonprofit.
“She has that heart for helping people, always wanting to support and lift others up,” Johnson said. “I’m supper excited for her and all the vets she’s going to help.”
As for Foxworth, she said she has few regrets from the struggles of life in the military and afterward: “I’m just proud of the mom I was able to be…the wife I am…the people I have taken care of. I am proud of my life,” Foxworth said. “I just want to make sure I get to heaven.”
How to contact the nonprofit
Caring Senior Service-Fort Worth help is available by telephone 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Call 817-765-6375. Office hours are Monday – Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. at 550 East Bailey Boswell Road, Bldg. 3, Suite 320A in Saginaw, TX 76131, a suburb about 8 to 10 miles from Fort Worth. To learn more, visit https://caringseniorservice.com/fort-worth/ or www.caringseniorservice.com.
Norma Adams-Wade is a Dallas native and a UT Austin journalism graduate. Retired Dallas Morning News senior staff writer. A founder of the National Association of lack Journalists. adamswade15@gmail.com
