Greenport Woman Organizes Fundraiser to Bring Her Brother Home

One devoted Greenport woman is continuing her fierce fundraising efforts to help bring her brother home.

On Sunday, Keasha King is hosting a fried shrimp or streak dinner on the Sixth Street Beach to help bring her brother Terrance back to the community. Dinners cost $15 each and include sides and a soda.
Her brother, Terrance Lawrence, was badly injured in a dirt bike accident in East Marion three years ago.

In May, local hip hop artist Mike Check organized a fundraiser for the family, to help make the Greenport home of King, Lawrence's sister, handicapped accessible, so that he can come back to the community and family that loves him.

King said her brother was 32 on the fateful day, July 18, 2010, of his accident. He and her son, Jefferson Treadwell, whom she called Naquawn, were dirt biking in East Marion when the handle bars collided and the two men were thrown. 

Her son, who was only 23 years old, died.

"It was really hard," she said. "It's still hard. I still have days when I have meltdowns."

King's brother suffered traumatic brain injury after the accident and is still in a wheelchair.

After the accident, he was airlifted from Eastern Long Island Hospital to Stony Brook; he was a patient there for six months before being transferred to a rehabilitation facility.

Currently, Lawrence resides in the Queens Nassau Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Far Rockaway, where he's been for over two years.

"He can't walk," King said. "How much of his memory was lost, we don't know."

The time has come, King said, to bring her brother home. But in order to do so, her home needs to be revamped, with ramps needed, as well as an extension downstairs to allow for a bedroom and a bathroom expansion.

A rough estimate of the cost totaled approximately $90,000, King said.

But despite the financial challenges, King said bringing her brother back will infuse her family with hope.

"I'm happy he can come home -- it's taken a toll on me," she said. King, a certified nurses' aid at Eastern Long island Hospital, works from 11 to 7 then comes home, takes a shower and a power nap, and heads off on the two hour and ten minute drive to visit her brother -- a trip she makes three or four days a week.

"I just have time to jump in my bed and lie down before I have to back to work," she said.

King is raising two daughters and a cousin.

In her grandchild, Jefferson, Jr. King, now three years old, said she sees glimpses of her son. "He has so many of his ways."

Homecoming will also be life-altering for her brother, King said. "He'll progress more at home. It will mean a lot to him," she said.

And, she added, Lawrence will be able to see his son, 13, again. "He needs to see his son -- and his son needs to see his father," she said. Seeing his son's face and getting a hug will be the best medicine for her brother, she said. "That's the best healing. You can't get any better than that."

King said she is thankful to the the community together for rallying to help her family.

"I"m really missing my brother," she said. "It's been three years. He needs to come home."