Athens’ Twin Angels take lessons from small town upbringing to change Athens community
Article by DJ Simmons
Athens Banner-Herald
Sheila Hill and Sharon Barnett pass by Pleasant Grove Baptist Church on a warm afternoon. It’s the third week of August and members are gathering for the annual revival service.
The church, located in the Wilkes County community of Rayle, holds a special place in the heart of the sisters with their mother and family members being buried in the cemetery behind it. But today the twin sisters who split their childhood between Rayle and Athens aim to be inconspicuous.
“If they see us we’ll never leave,” Barnett joked.
Hill and Barnett remember attending services with their family as kids, and as adults they’ve found ways to give back like buying purses for members.
Their generosity extends to Athens, where they now live and are heavily invested in the community. The sisters are affectionately called the “Twin Angels” for the outreach work they across the city.
“I don’t think I can even scratch the surface for what they’ve done,” Athens Clarke-County Commissioner Ovita Thornton said. “Long before I knew them, I knew of them.”
Thornton said she would hear of their work — such as back-to-school drives, transporting seniors for hospital visits, and more. But none of this was self-publicizing, she said, and by the time she heard of their work, it was usually already done.
“I don’t think anybody has brought together a cross-section of folk to talk about the gang violence,” Thornton said, crediting it to the twins’ lived experience. “That’s the leadership that bubbles up from the ground instead of trickling down from the top.”
In early August, the twins helped organize a rally through Nellie B Apartments to protest gang and gun violence. The organization of the event was in part to also honor the memory of Hill’s grandson who was killed by gang violence the day before Thanksgiving last year.
Hill said today she believes her grandson dealt with his own mental health challenges he may not have been able to articulate. She said some kids who deal with mental illness are pushed to the streets when they feel no outlet or way to communicate what they feel.
“The bad stuff the kids are out here doing, I think mental health plays a big part in that,” Hill said. “I think if we can help them at a young age we can keep them from joining the gangs.”
The sisters primary work is their business True Comfort, which contracts through Advantage and offers assisted living to those with mental illnesses and the elderly. The sisters have run the business for around 20 years and were motivated to learn more about mental health after seeing its effects on their mother.
“We saw mental illness in our family, but we didn’t know what it was,” Barnett said. “We didn’t understand it then.”
The twins also see their mental health work as a crucial element of finding ways to address gang violence.
Mental health and gang violence often have correlation, but those with lived experience are not often center in the conversations regarding solutions, according to Thornton.
“I don’t think we can solve problems from a governmental place if we don’t listen to people who are boots on the ground,” she said.
“But the twins come from that background, they come from Nellie B,” Thornton continued. “They beat the odds of the negative stereotypes, but they didn’t just move on, they’re reaching back and still helping folks.”
The work the twins do in Athens has not only wowed officials, it has also inspired a younger generation of Athenians to do the same.
Darius Brightwell, co-founder of Save Our Youth, an organization aimed at helping the youth in East Athens, said growing up and seeing them always reaching out was inspiring. He said watching two sisters stick together to reach the community over the years made him want to do similar work.
“They were always making an effort to give back to the kids and the community as a whole,” Brightwell, 39, said. “They helped create different ways to spread love and have helped out where they could for a long time.”
Brightwell said the nickname commonly known around East Athens is a perfect fit for the two.
“They’re the sweetest ladies you’ll ever meet in your life,” Brightwell said. “They’ve invited strangers in their homes, given people food to eat, and use their resources to help you.”
Jeremiah Parks, founder of the Explosive Elites Dance Team, a dance team that also looks to create community leaders, said the twins were inspirational for the work he does as well.
More: Athens dance team aims to transform young members into ‘community leaders
“They’re good role models, they’re good leaders, and good examples on how to give back to the community,” Parks, 19, said. “They’re kind-hearted and sweet people and very loving no matter what kind of lifestyle you live. They’re not judgmental at all.”
And even those who do not personally know the twins speak highly of them.
“I’ve heard they are very committed to the community and I’ve heard they put their resources where their mouths are to do some wonderful things for the community,” said Fred Smith, executive director of the East Athens Development Corp.
While the Twin Angels nickname rings bells for many, its origins aren’t clearly known, even to the sisters.
Last year, the name was already circulating when they were called for an interview to discuss them providing food for those in need during the pandemic.
“Channel 5 News contacted us and said we want to get to know the twin angels,” Barnett recalled, adding at the time they were providing food for those in need. “I said, ‘Twin Angels?’ But they told me that was what everybody was calling us… so we took the name on.”
When the twins are asked where this kind-hearted approach to community building comes they point back to Rayle, the small town between Lexington and Washington with a population of around 200 people.
“It was so much love in Rayle,” Barnett said. “Everybody loved everybody. We looked out for each other.”
The twins were the youngest of five sisters and describe themselves as inseparable. They joked their husbands even got jealous of their bond at first, especially when they sometimes choose to speak to each other instead of them.
They worked together as kids to help those in their community. This would range from raking someone’s yard to helping someone do their laundry at a time when washing machines weren’t common, they said.
“When we were young our parents and our grandmother had the heart of giving and loving,” Barnett said. “That’s how we were raised up. To love your neighbors, treat people right, and do right by people.”
After moving to East Athens at a young age they would continue to spend summers back in Rayle with their grandmother who pushed them to continue to help others.
“She was our rock,” Hill said. “She was always there.”
On the recent warm August afternoon, the sisters are happy to be back in Rayle no matter how short the stay is. Before they leave to head back to Athens they stop at a small convenience store called Rayle Food Mart, though they recall it was once called the Marshall store.
The sparse town may seemingly not offer much to outsiders minus a Dollar General that the twins joked is like a mall for the area, but for them, it’s more.
“This is home,” Barnett said. “I love it.”
