We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Debra Turner-Ray . We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Debra below.

Alright, Debra thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. How did you come up with the idea for your business?

I am a retired Hemodialysis Technician. My idea is a clothing line for dialysis and chemo patients. This is to provide easy access to their dialysis or chemo site. Whether its in their leg, arm chest, or back. When trying to give my patients their treatment, it would have been easier if i could get to their site without the patient having to almost strip. This is when the idea came to me. The flap will be made with snaps and not zippers because zippers jam up and they could also pinch the patient, I knew it would work because of the patients I spoke with, they agreed it would be a great idea. I got excited when a friend wore my prototype to treatment, and the nurses and technicians raved about how it made placing the patient on treatment was a lot easier

Debra, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I was born and raised in Chicago, I am married I have 2 biological children and 5 bonus chilldren and together we have 24 grandchildren. This is my 2nd marriage, I am a survivor of domestic violence and substance abuse from my first marriage. I have been sober from drugs and alcohol for 29 years. I am a retired
Hemodialysis Technician, prior to this field I was a Respiratory Therapist. My 2nd husband and I have been married for 21 years. We belong to the UpperRoom Outreach Ministry under the leadership of Elder Christopher Brown and Prophetess Towanda Brown. This is where my gifts of writing and ideas for business were born. My First Lady saw something in me that I never knew existed. I have 2 books currently on Amazon. I have become an International Best Selling author, and also on Amazon i became a Best Selling author from the book I Co-Wrote wih 11 other Women of color and mothers of African American children, and our fears. The idea about the clothing line just popped up in my head and I acted on it, but out of everything i enjoy writing mypoetry, because i spend time with God and he uses me to say what needs to be said. God wrote my poetry book To Whom it May Cocern

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

I had to realize that everybody is not going to be happy about your success or your journey to the next level. Whether its family or friends. I have always been the ride or die friend or family member. I always gave everybody the benefit of the doubt. I had to unlearn that everybody is not going to treat you the way you treat people. What happened to me was a valuable but hurtful lesson. I have two friends who are seamstresses and I needed my prototype to be sewn so I could go around to the dialysis units and promote the idea. I had the format and business plan laid out. I went to both of them because i know how they both work. One is slightly OCD and the other is always late for everything. But by having them both one would compliment the other. I took my plan to them with the material, thread, patterns and snaps, plus how i wanted it to look. I waited for over a month after i took the idea to them. One of them called me back and said it with a very snappy tone, she said No im not going to be able to help you. Im making mask right now and i dont have time. When she turned me down it was a little hurtful because she’s the one with OCD. Then the next one called and said with a very condescending tone, how did YOU come up with this idea? I was shocked at her tone and her words. I said God gave it to me, she said well i wont be able to help you, because my mask business is keeping me very busy. I said ok thank you anyway. So bottom line is at this day people dont even wear homemade mask like that anymore, and you all turned down a chance at big money

for little money, and the kicker was they both stopped talking to me and 60 years of friendship gone down the drain.I had to unlearn how to be friends with them.

How’d you meet your business partner?

My business partner was my niece. When I married into the Ray family, I always watched her grow, she was a successful business woman. She owned and operated her own hair salon. She sponsored different comedians, and actors. She showed her family what the grind was all about. I took my proposal of the clothing line, and a stage play which i have written, she told me to get everything together with both projects and she would sponsor them both. On May 31, 2022 we got a call at 4:30am that she had been in a terrible accident and she didn’t make it, she had just celebrated her 49th birthday. Have you ever been so hurt that your breath left your body,? Well mine did. So Im now in search of, because I know she wouldn’t want me to quit when im this close.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: debraray79
• Facebook: Debra Turner-Ray
• Other: turnerdebra72@gmail.com

Image Credits
Clarence Ray Corliss Brooks Tierre Turner Erica Robinson