Texas Southern senior linebacker Jacob Williams makes it clear that he had two mothers really since the age of 3.
There is his real mom, Rachel, who unfortunately passed away in 2013.
Then there is Desiree, his dad’s wife, whom Jacob and his siblings lovingly and loyally refer to as second mom. Stepmom, as far as they are concerned, isn’t a fitting title.
“I call her my second mom, not my stepmom,” Jacob said in a recent conversation ahead of Mother’s Day. “She and my dad got together when I was 3 years old when my real mom was still around. It was never any bitterness or anything. It was always just co-parenting. I had three parents, her, my dad and my real mom.”
It’s always been said that it takes a special woman to be a mother. In that case, it takes an extremely special woman to do what Desiree Barnes-Williams has done over the years, and that is step in and be the loving, thoughtful and always present motherly presence in the lives of the six children she inherited when she married Jimmy Williams, Jr.
It was that way years before Rachel passed. Desiree then stepped up even more in their lives once their real mom was no longer physically there. She was there to offer a hug, sound life and career advice and even to offer a bit of tough love and reality when necessary.
“She is a very loving mother,” said Isaac, who is Jacob’s twin brother and student coach at TSU. “She always had our backs on everything, harped on accountability, doing the right thing. She is big on character. She instilled that in us as well, to always do the right thing even when nobody is looking and nobody is around and just being a standup individual not just in sports but all around.”
“She took us in like we were her own kids. That’s a big thing. You couldn’t tell she was our second mom just by how she treated us and how we treated her, as well.”
It was a promise Desiree made to Rachel. It’s a promise she has kept.
A product of Texas Southern and a current professor of sociology at the HBCU, Desiree made sure to instill the importance of an education in all of the Williams children. Desiree received her undergraduate and master’s degrees from Texas Southern University and is currently working on her doctorate.
She was instrumental in both Jacob and Isaac coming to TSU, where Jacob has thrived as a one-time walk-on to a star defensive player for the Tigers. Isaac, who is a sports management major, is well on the path to his desired career as a football coach.
Desiree couldn’t be more proud of them both.
“I know that I’m not their biological mom but seeing them grow into the young men that they are … I know that their mother is so proud and she is smiling down from heaven,” Desiree said while fighting back tears. “I made a promise to her while she was here that I would look after them and take care of them.
“So, seeing them grow into the men that they are, I feel that I have fulfilled a promise to their mom.”
Isaac and Jacob give their second mom a great deal of credit for their success and the great memories she was instrumental in giving them. When asked about some of his favorite memories with Desiree growing up, the first that comes to Jacob’s mind is how Desiree, his mom and dad all came together as a unit for their benefit.
“The things I remember is them having a great relationship,” Jacob said. “They were more like sisters. There was no bitterness at all. It was always like a three-team partnership. That’s why I have never called her my stepmom, I’ve always called her my second mom.”
Desiree remembers it as a loving, smooth-running blended family.
“They always knew they had two moms,” Desiree said. “From day one they always said they had two moms.
“If it was a school program that Rachel couldn’t make, I made it, or we were there together. When they played Little League football, they played on two different teams. Rachel and I would rotate. ‘I’m going to go see Isaac and you go see Jacob.’ There was kind of like no difference. It just happened naturally.”
Desiree credits Rachel for the close relationship she has always been able to enjoy with the kids.
“Their mom made it very, very easy,” Desiree said. “She would always thank me. `Des, I want to thank you.’ And I would tell her, ‘No, because I need to thank you. These are your children and if it wasn’t for you, our relationship would not be the way it is’ because she was a wonderful woman. She allowed me to love her children.”
Desiree came into the marriage without children and she honestly never wanted children. But she has six now – Chimere Williams-Davis, Corey Kimble, Jimmy Williams III, Leah Williams, Jacob and Isaac – and couldn’t imagine her life without them.
“I tell them all of the time, and I tell my husband, they gave me a purpose for living,” Desiree said. “They have fulfilled my life.
“That was something that was missing that I didn’t even know was missing.”
For that, Jacob and Isaac both say they owe her for what she has done and meant to their lives.
“I can’t tell how much she has done for us in terms of providing for us and loving us. It’s been a lot,” Isaac. “I’m forever in debt because she has done so much for us.”
