Remarkable Women: Brenda Williams

by: Hayley Wielgus

Posted: Mar 31, 2026 / 11:35 AM CDT

Updated: Mar 31, 2026 / 11:35 AM CDT

WILSON COUNTY, Tenn. (WKRN) — It started with endearing notes from a student at the Hermitage elementary school where Brenda Williams works as the payroll and finance administrator asking to stay with her.

“I knew there was something special about this child, and I knew I could give him something. He needed something,” Williams said.

Williams made a connection with that 10-year-old boy, who was in state custody. She asked the Department of Children’s Services how she could help.

“They told me that the first step would be to become a foster parent. Sign me up,” Williams said. “He just needed a little bit more love, and I knew if I didn’t have anything else, I had love.”

After a few weekend visits, Williams made a decision that would change both of their lives.

“We just got attached to each other, and he asked me one weekend if he could stay. I was like, ‘well, no, you have to go back.’  That really got me to thinking, maybe I can adopt him,” Williams recalled.

A mom of three grown children and grandmother of eight, Williams didn’t expect to add to her family at this stage of life, but she didn’t hesitate.

“We did everything we needed to do and brought him home, made him a Williams,” she said. “There are so many children out there (who) need to be fostered and adopted. If I could (adopt) 10 more children, I would.”

Williams has already helped hundreds of other children in need in Middle Tennessee through her non-profit organization Brenda’s Boxes of Blessings.

“My biggest event is my yearly toy drive, and it has grown from 25 children to 400 children this past year,” Williams said. “I could not imagine a child without a toy, because my children were those children without toys. I had my daughter very, very young. I was a teen mom, and I didn’t have anybody. So I couldn’t imagine these children not having toys because they had nobody.”

With the help of partners and donors, Williams spends months collecting Christmas presents. In 2024, just two weeks before distribution day, her Mt. Juliet home caught on fire.

“I had all of my grandchildren with me because it was Thanksgiving break,” Williams said. “My granddaughter was in the basement asleep. That’s where the fire started.”

Her family made it out safely, but all of the donations stored inside did not.

“My biggest loss was thinking that I would not be able to serve those children, because I had lost all of those toys. How was I going to tell them that ‘oh, sorry we don’t have any toys for you?’ But people reached out,” Williams said. “The toys started coming in quicker than they had ever come, because we were two weeks away. I knew then that I would be in Wilson County for the rest of my life, because the Wilson County community, my grandchildren’s school, they showed up.”

“So many people have been through heartaches and turmoils and things in their life that their circumstances are not their preference. They sort of turn inward and turn bitter, and that has not happened to Brenda. I know she has faced a lot of turmoil in her life, and she has turned it back out; she has turned something bad into something good with her life,” said Williams’ friend and former co-worker Candy Ward.

Ward nominated Williams for News 2’s Remarkable Women campaign.

“I can’t think of a better word to describe her than remarkable,” Ward said. “It’s good to see somebody being the hands and feet of God, which she is.”

Williams’ latest endeavor is authoring several books, including one titled The ABCs of Addiction, a struggle she’s faced with her own son. It’s also dedicated to a young man named Hunter, who was like a son to her, who lost his battle with mental health issues. She wants the book to be a resource for grieving families.

“You have to be there for other people. I just want to know that if and when I’m not here, there’ll be somebody for my babies. There’ll be somebody looking after my sweet boy because I looked after somebody else’s.”

Williams is working on opening Hunter’s Hope House, a place for people to stay and get back on their feet after finishing rehab.  She accepts donations year-round for her toy drive. For more information, visit brendasboxesofblessings.com.

Remarkable Women: Brenda Williams (wkrn.com)