Grieving high school senior gets musical tribute, college funds after his mom’s COVID-19 death
INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — Dreshon Wilson is a college-bound high school senior at Charles A. Tindley Accelerated School with a love for music and according to his music instructor, Kim Kenny, he’s got big dreams.
However, he’s endured a couple of months that could derail any dream and Kenny realized it after a phone call with his family. Dreshon’s mother, Lena, was sick and in the hospital with coronavirus.
Kenny tried everything she could to help Dreshon get through the hard days: “FaceTiming him, calling him, texting him every day, checking on him [and] checking on his mom,” Kenny said.
Nothing could’ve prepared them when things took a turn for the worse. At only 45 years old, Lena Heffner died.
“I was devastated,” Kenny said. “I could feel his pain. We were heartbroken.”
This came after Dreshon had already lost his grandmother to cancer.
Since that day Kenny, as Dreshon’s mentor, has been trying to help him pick up the pieces. One day, his friends at the Indy Urban Youth Choir started putting their heads together to do something special. Kenny says they called her with the idea at 2 in the morning. They wanted to do a musical tribute.
At first they had trouble deciding how to do it. They debated over which song they would sing, until Dreshon’s friend, Devin, gave them the perfect song with a message to match: “Father Can You Hear Me,” a gospel song on the soundtrack of the Tyler Perry movie “Diary of a Mad Black Woman.”
“As much grief and pain that he feels right now, I want him to feel the same amount of love and support,” Kenny said.
They want this tribute to inspire his community and encourage people to help fulfill Dreshon’s dream of going to college. They call it “10k4Dre.” It’s a GoFundme campaign to help Dreshon move into his dorm, pay for audition fees and pay for any essentials he’ll need during his transition into college.
Kenny hopes the support of his peers and his community will be enough to let Dreshon know that even though life has knocked him down, his journey is far from over.
“Your wildest dreams are going to come true,” Kenny said.