Interview: VoyageATL Community Highlights
VoyageATL sat down with our founder, Sabrina Dixon. In sharing her story, readers got the chance to learn Sabrina’s purpose and story better, her challenges and what keeps her going. We are so excited to share this interview with you. Have a good read!
VoyageATL: Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
Growing up for me was not easy. My siblings and I were raised by my grandmother. She was the most gentle and kind woman. I would literally cry on her shoulder when I thought of my parents not being around or for anything for that matter. She would kiss me on my forehead and tell me I would be alright. She would call me and all children lumps of love or her “Precious Love.” She was a strong, beautiful woman. I admired everything about her. Later in life, she developed Alzheimer’s disease. Eventually, she would stop talking. One day I took my 6mth old son to visit her and by this time, she had stopped communicating completely. He was literally trying to jump out my arms to get to her. My aunt said to let him. I placed him on her and for the 1st time in a long time she spoke!! She said, “that’s just a Precious Love.” My grandmother never forgot what love was. She knew her happy place was children. Of course, there wasn’t a dry eye there.
In 2015, my grandmother passed away from Alzheimer’s disease. I was beyond crushed. How could this disease take my Nana away? In 2016, through my grief, I founded my non-profit organization, Precious Love. Precious Love honors and supports Caregivers of those who fight Alzheimer’s disease. While experiencing Alzheimer’s disease with my grandmother, I noticed she couldn’t remember much and could never quite place your name but she for sure always knew love. So that’s how I got here. Alzheimer’s is a very hard disease to cope with. You lose your loved one twice. So we are here to support those who are living with someone who is currently fighting Alzheimer’s disease.
VoyageATL: Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
It has not been a smooth road for me at all. I am only 30 years old, advocating for “an old person disease.” Often I don’t feel heard. My peers aren’t necessarily interested in talking about it and I feel a lot people don’t take the disease seriously until it is happening to them. My thing is, I will not stop. I see my Nana in every single person who is fighting this disease so I feel like I’m fighting for her. Another struggle is everything is literally coming out of my pocket besides a few donations here and there. But that is ok too. I believe in God and I believe the same way my Nana fought and prayed for me here, she up there all in God’s ear lol. I believe wholeheartedly that people will know the name, Precious Love.
VoyageATL: Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I am the founder of my non-profit, Precious Love, as well as Co-founder of Precious Love the Brand. Precious Love is the non-profit piece where we advocate on behalf of those fighting Alzheimers disease as well as support their caregivers. Each year around the death date of my Nana, we do a caregiver of the year award. We receive nominations on behalf of a caregiver and then select one and honor them for their work. We do this because often time caregivers are family members of the loved one and they go unnoticed and overworked. People feel that it’s a work that they should be doing but it takes a lot of Love and a strong individual to do this work. So Precious Love just wants them to know we are here and we see them.
My newest baby is the clothing line that I co-founded with my brother Andrew called Precious Love the Brand. It is a clothing line bringing awareness to Alzheimer’s through fashion. A lot of people our age won’t talk about it but if you wear it, people will start to ask questions. The conversation will get to go. In the end, you get to be fly and bring awareness to the 6th leading cause of death in the United States!
VoyageATL: Is there a quality that you most attribute to your success?
I am a very empathetic person. I feel what people feel. I also work at my local hospital on a burn and trauma unit. My coworkers often joke that I work the best with difficult people. I feel like if I could make one person’s day better, then I have done my job. I feel that exact same way with my work with Precious Love. Suppose I can make one caregiver’s load lighter than we have done our job. I will continue to advocate until the 1st person is healed from Alzheimer’s disease.
You can also check out the interview here, Community Highlights: Meet Sabrina Dixon