Natlie Wilkerson

Raindrops keep falling on my head

Natlie Wilkerson makes her own laughter.

Last March she planned an event called “A Fashion Show with a Twist.” Nine men wore dresses and high heels to benefit the North Liberty Food and Clothing Pantry.

“I wanted something fun,” Wilkerson said. “It was a lot of fun.”

She even managed to get the town’s mayor on the runway.

Wilkerson believes in making her own humor.

As a biological child in a foster home, she saw lots of scared children come to her Davenport home. She did whatever she could to make them feel safe and welcome.

She remembers a time when a number of children younger than 7 were dropped off at her home because their parents were in police custody for having stolen food. None of the children spoke English. She tried to make them smile and laugh to know it would be OK.

“You have to really learn to dance in the rain when the rain is pouring,” Wilkerson said. “I love to dance.”

To be what Wilkerson considers family, you had to live in her home for five years or more. She has 18 foster brothers and three foster sisters.

Wilkerson believes in paying it forward, doing whatever she can to make others’ lives a little easier.

“When you are lying in that coffin at the end of your life, don’t you want one person to walk by and say, ‘My life is better because of her?’”

— Deanna Howard

Iowa City Press-Citizen -- March 12, 2009