Serena Grooms

Serena Grooms was born March 19, 1965. She was the second oldest child of five born to Beatrice Wiggins Grooms and Thomas M. Grooms. She was born in Boston, Massachusetts and lived in various districts of Boston (Roxbury, Dorchester, Mattapan) throughout her life.

Serena’s mom Beatrice was the 2nd youngest of 6 children (her baby brother dying in infancy) Beatrice was born in Asheville, North Carolina and at an early age, when her parents, Carrie Jones Wiggins and Mamon Wiggins separated, Carrie relocated moving her five children first to Holyoke then Boston, Massachusetts.

Serena’s father Thomas was the 2nd youngest of 14 children and was born in Eastover, South Carolina. His parents, Evelyn Rawlerson Grooms and Sidney Grooms, Sr. relocated to Richmond and then Charles City, Virginia. Thomas followed in the footsteps of his older siblings and in his early twenties moved to Massachusetts.

Serena attended Boston Public Schools and was a very good student. She achieved academic honor rolls; merit awards; was mentioned in Who’s Who Among American High School Students; was a member of Junior Achievements and was an officer with her team which assembled and sold candle wall sconces under the mentorship of local business leaders. In her senior year of high school, Serena was president of the Spanish club and she graduated high school as a member of the National Honor Society.

At graduation from high school in 1983, Serena obtained an academic scholarship and she matriculated to University of Massachusetts Amherst: School of Engineering. As circumstances would have it, Serena did not complete her Bachelor’s Degree. She withdrew from University for personal reasons one year and a half short of her graduation - she often spoke of this as the ‘albatross around her neck’, the part of her life left undone.

Serena was always pretty much of a loner and her most favorite place to be was home in her room working on her ‘projects’, reading, doing trivia projects, working on her “Signature photo collection”. However, those she called friend were very close to her heart and she considered them more family than anything else. Serena was always looking for or trying to create something fun to do whether from a child trying to teach herself to become a ventriloquist to the adult antics of teaching herself to twist balloons to entertain her Girl Scout Troop, to making up cookie raps during cookie sales, to arranging guest speakers and writing ‘programs’ for MLK brunches in home, Serena also attempted to teach herself to play the harmonica (Serena took pride in the fact that she could play the first few notes of – three blind mice – on her harmonica). She developed her ‘own style’ of following crochet patterns and even had her own personal labels made (somewhat of a joke to tease her youngest brother) to customize her completed Afghan projects which she gifted to family members. Serena was a lover of the classics – movies and music- she loved to dance and sing and as a child had aspirations of being a ballet dancer and as an adult wished often that God had blessed her with, as she called it, ‘the gift of song’!!!

Serena’s mom set the foundation for her and her brothers at an early age, instilling in them the love of and knowledge of the Lord. Although Serena had joined the church earlier in her childhood, it was not until her sophomore year of high school (1980) that Serena was baptized when she joined Morning Star Baptist Church under the leadership of (then Reverend) now Bishop John M. Borders, III. She counted Bishop Borders and her childhood friend and classmate, Reverend Timothy R. Allen, as two of her three most important spiritual mentors, her mom Beatrice being the third. Although her dad wasn’t much of a church goer in his adult life, his family had a strong spiritual foundation including being strongly involved in fellowship and spiritual leadership at Morning Star Baptist Church in Richmond Virginia. If his wife Beatrice went to service, Thomas fully expected his children to be in attendance as well. During Serena’s 30 plus years of fellowship at Morning Star Baptist Church in Mattapan, MA, she was a member of various auxiliaries: the Singles’ Ministry; the Anniversary Committee; Morning Prayer Group – (Yes, she was a prayer warrior); the Women’s Ministry; and the Health Ministry.

Guided by the examples of her mom throughout her life, Serena was very much a believer in giving back to community. The summer of her high school graduation, she and her friends formed the group Committee to Help Advance Neighborhood Growth and Education (C.H.A.N.G.E.) where they raised funds, wrote skits, designed their own sets, and performed in their own variety/musical shows and donated the funds to local political campaigns. Later in life, she was a Girl Scout Troop leader/Double Dutch coach for five years each and subsequently, a Double Dutch Judge for six plus years. Serena was captain of Team Red Heart Sass - for over six years fundraising and walking to raise awareness about the plight of women and heart disease and the importance of heart health; she walked, volunteered, and fundraised for over eight years for Project Bread Walk for Hunger – her most proud moment was the first time she “walked alone in the crowd” and completed the 20 mile walk; for over six years Serena was captain of Team Pink Magic in the Boston Making Strides Against Breast Cancer walk.

Serena also walked, volunteered, and contributed donations to various other organizations such as AIDS Walk Boston; LoveLife Now Foundation helping raising awareness of domestic violence and the education for prevention thru the Heel-A-thon walk as well as to donating bedding and pillows for women in shelters; Serena participated in various community prayer vigils and peace walks in addition to supporting Mothers for Justice and Equality; and United Sisters of Color programs – operation prom dress and tuxedo and toiletries for 100 homeless men; Serena donated dolls at Christmas for girls in shelters via Divas and Dolls; she was a volunteer for Little Brothers Friends of the Elderly – with her mom and family members - visiting and delivering meals to community elders – this for 20 plus years. One of her funniest memories of this time was baking a turkey for the meal donations and organizing her girl scout troop to bake cookies and take for deliveries to the elders only to find the miscommunication was ‘the girl scouts were bringing GIRL SCOUT COOKIES’ instead of the ‘Girl Scouts were baking cookies to donate’. She and her girl scouts also hand made pillows to donate to auction for Roxbury YMCA to help send kids to camp during a REACH OUT program. Serena volunteer at the election polls, did door canvassing and phone informationals with RoxVote Coalition. In addition, she donated to and/or volunteered for various other charitable orgranizations and children’s groups inclusive of Salvation Army and the Lakota Children’s School and promoted children’s reading/literacy groups like JumpStart and We Give Books. Serena was a member of her community public safety committee and served on the Orchard Gardens’ Resident Board. She was often seen volunteering at her community’s neighborhood clean up projects; or at National Night Out and other youth events as “Supah Twistah” the balloon twister or doing her amateur face painting and miscellaneous other crafts with the children of the community or with Hike4Life/ROY (Reclaim our youth).

Serena began her working career at the age of thirteen as did most of her relatives, working at her Uncle Willie’s restaurant – Walaikum Burgers. She often worked more than one job and worked in various sectors in the fields of finance; health; construction; hotel design; legal; mutual funds and venture capital groups and at one period of time wrote medical insurance policies.

Serena believed in seizing every opportunity to increase knowledge as well as to improve her working skills. During her 9 plus years of employment at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, she took and received certification in a Microsoft office program scoring at the highest level in her class. She did this just to re-confirm what she had taught herself because she had never received ‘formal’ computer training. She also took classes in the sciences – Biology, Chemistry, Anatomy & Physiology - again scoring exceptionally well in each class. Serena would make jokes that while the others took the classes to sequel into nursing programs, she felt like “Ally Sheedy in the Breakfast Club” as she had taken the classes just for ‘something to do’. It was with great pride that, when she ran into her Chemistry professor while volunteering elsewhere, she discovered he had used her notes as a template for future students’ reference on how to prepare/submit their assignments and had even shared her notes with other professors for use in their courses.

Although she was not blessed to marry and have children of her own, Serena had a multitude of God-children and considered her self “Auntie Mama” to all of her brothers’ children as well as her younger cousins. Most particularly to her niece, Maritza Grooms whom she raised from the age of five years old. As well, Serena was foster mom to her cousins for a year of their young lives – Kaylin, Charles Jr., and Chelsea Gomes. Sharing also a special relationship with her younger cousin Alanna “Sassy” Harrison, her young BFF.

Serena was preceded in death by her parents Massic and Beatrice Grooms; her brothers, Thomas “Tommy” Grooms and Toby Massic Grooms; her infant sister, Sabrina Grooms; and beloved cat Momma Mia Grooms, grandparents, aunts & uncles. She leaves behind a legacy of love and service in her surviving family: Juliette Samantha Grooms (cat daughter), Darryn Grooms (brother) and his wife Mary; two older sisters – Kim R. Grooms and Lisha Grooms Ingram. She is also survived by her Aunt Bernice Wiggins Stokes (Townsend) of Roxbury, MA; her Aunt Martha Wiggins of Bridgewater, MA; Aunt Lillie Scott Grooms of Silver Springs, MD; Aunt Linda Grooms of Chicago, Il. In addition she leaves her nieces and nephews – Maritza Grooms, James Grooms, Desiree Grooms, Alexis Stephenson Grooms, Tyla Ward and her husband Aaron, Enjonie Ingram, and Tiffany Ingram; six great nieces and two great nephews; her special sister cousins–Marie Hughes Reddick, Debra Jones, Melissa Theondra Kelly, Lanee Grooms, Deidre Grooms, Marcia Stokes and Almitra Wiggins. In addition, a multitude of extended cousins, friends, relatives and a multitude of sister friends and last but definitely not least her spiritual sisters Lucy Fonseca, Yahlon Litchmore, Tammy Battiste, Julia Santa, Danita Logwood, Felicia Tshingte, Margaret Okonkwo, Erica Jarvis, Lilian Ogagno, and spiritual nephew Joshua Bonnie.

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