Eligibility to become Aging But Dangerous requires just one small feat—live past 50 years of age.  For Sheila Raye Charles that seemed a tall order.

Most people reading this have gone through tough stuff in their lives.  Sadly, many people reading this may be going through the toughest times they have ever experienced, right now.  Sheila Raye Charles reminds all who encounter her, that there is a Phoenix in all of us.  As Sheila expresses in a documentary about her life by Lou Gossett Jr., “no matter how low you are in your life or how hopeless and desperate that you feel—there is always hope—you CAN rise up from any circumstance”.

Ray Charles was an absentee father; initially even challenging that Sheila shared his DNA.  Sheila ran away from home at 15 and turned to drugs and alcohol to ease the pain of loss and emotional abandonment. For 18 years Sheila wallowed in a deadly mixture of extreme talent, self pity, prison, and drugs.  Eventually she lost custody of her 5 children and as she lay sobbing on a cell floor in Bryan Federal Prison Camp she asked God to end her life.  She felt it was the only way out of her personal hell. 

Enter God.  Inside her, the immense hole that she could never fill with drugs and sex began to heal and fill. In the darkest of her days, Sheila says that God filled her soul with joy and began working through her to minister to other incarcerated women.  She forgave herself, a difficult undertaking for most of us, and finally saw life as an opportunity for good .

Although she only connected with her legendary father via phone after her emotional resurrection, she did discover a warm and supportive “secret” family, ironically, at his funeral.  Nine new siblings appeared to morn the passing of Mr. Charles, which made 12 children in total.  Most did not know of each others existence. Sheila was always desperate for just one person who understood her difficult situation, now she had 11.

Aging But Dangerous is THRILLED to have Sheila performing at our benefit for Haiti on April 22.  Through God, and her sobriety, Sheila is on a roll.  Her new book “Behind The Shades” inspires and encourages us, her album, of the same name, entertains and engages us, and her work in One Way Up Prison Ministries, changes lives and touches us.  Find her documentary with Lou Gossett Jr at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDbh-H8tp6g   

COME HEAR THIS INCREDIABLE WOMAN BELT OUT A SONG THAT WILL PUT YOU UNDER THE TABLE!  You’ll know whose daughter she is without even asking.