after losing both her daughter and grandson in separate crashes<\/a> involving drunk drivers.<\/p>\nKHOU 11 first introduced viewers to Thomas last December, when she created a moving Whataburger-themed memorial in her front yard honoring her daughter, Destani, whose favorite restaurant was Whataburger.<\/p>\n
Now, that memorial has grown into something even bigger.<\/p>\n
“At Christmas time I had about 60. I’ve gotten well over 100 now,” Thomas told KHOU 11’S Michelle Choi, referring to signs in her front yard.<\/p>\n
The growing collection of photos represents survivors and victims killed by drunk and distracted drivers. This latest installation includes American flags placed alongside the photos as a reminder of the lives lost and the families forever changed.<\/p>\n
“They’re my people now, you know,\u201d Thomas said. \u201cThis is my family.\u201d<\/p>\n
Destani was just 18 years old when she was killed by a drunk driver near home in 2020.<\/p>\n
Two years later, Thomas suffered another devastating loss when her 4-month-old grandson, Carson, was also killed in a crash involving a drunk and distracted driver.<\/p>\n
Despite unimaginable grief, Thomas has dedicated herself to raising awareness and advocating for safer choices behind the wheel.<\/p>\n
She speaks to inmates in prison, shares her story publicly and hands out small items carrying anti-drunk driving messages to encourage conversations about road safety.<\/p>\n
“If I can touch one life or save one life, I think I’ve done what I’m supposed to,” Thomas said.<\/p>\n
With the Fourth of July holiday considered one of the busiest drinking weekends of the year, Thomas hopes drivers think twice before getting behind the wheel impaired.<\/p>\n
“It’s a celebration and people are drinking and celebrating, but be responsible,” she said.<\/p>\n
Thomas says impaired driving crashes are preventable.<\/p>\n
“This is 100% preventable. You don’t have to drive when you’ve been drinking,” she said.<\/p>\n
For Thomas, every photo in her yard represents more than a statistic. It represents a life that mattered and a family still living with loss.<\/p>\n
“I feel like honoring them, never letting their name not come out of our mouth,” Thomas said.<\/p>\n
She says she plans to continue growing the memorial and using her voice to advocate for victims.<\/p>\n
“As long as I have a yard and a mouth, then I think I will continue to do this every holiday,” Thomas said.<\/p>\n
Got a news tip or story idea? Email us at\u00a0newstips@khou.com<\/a>\u00a0or call 713-521-4310 and include your name and the best way to reach you.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Charisse Thomas lost her daughter and grandson in separate wrecks involving drunk drivers. She continues to spread awareness.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":360973,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[56,58,57],"class_list":["post-360972","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-houston","tag-houston","tag-houston-headlines","tag-houston-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/360972","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=360972"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/360972\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/360973"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=360972"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=360972"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=360972"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}