They say love is blind – that’s certainly true for Cornell Williams.
Born blind, Black and albino, life was never easy. But, every day, Cornell travels from the Bronx to Richmond Hill in Queens, N.Y. (2 hours round trip) to work at Alphapointe. After his labor-intense shifts at a 138,000-square foot manufacturing complex largely comprised of employees with vision impairment who make everything from face masks for the military to mops for the federal government, he’d spend hours volunteering his time delivering food and medication to those hit hardest by COVID in his Bronx neighborhood.
Shortly after his 50th birthday in March 2020 and after weeks of bringing help to those in need, Cornell finally succumbed to the virus, and was quarantined/isolated for 28 days. He was in a tremendous amount of pain. He couldn’t see his family. He couldn’t go to work and see his friends. He couldn’t help those who he’d been helping.
Though he has a newfound respect for the virus, nothing will stop him from caring for his community, and, once again, you can find him going door-to-door with the food and medications that his elderly neighbors are afraid to leave their homes to get. As his father once told him, “if you have two arms, two legs and you can breathe, nothing is impossible.”
Learn more about Cornell’s remarkable story: