During a recent Mothers Against Murderers Association meeting, Kamisha Gibson cries as she talks about her son, Jervonte Gibson, who was shot to death on March 20 in West Palm Beach. [GREG LOVETT/palmbeachpost.com]
The plan
Williams sees mothers go through three identities: victim, survivor and advocate.
For years, Georgie Dixon, Williams’ sister, lived with an emotional hurt that also manifested in physical ailments, after her 29-year-old son, Torrey Manuel, was killed.
Williams remembers her sister pacing along the sidewalk screaming for her son: “Torrey! Torrey! Torrey!”
Sixteen years later, the thought of a Mother’s Day without him still paralyzes her, Dixon said by phone last month.
Dixon spent years in a fog of grief. Then one day, her oldest child looked at her and said, “You have one more son.”
Manuel had died in his brother’s arms. Her oldest son was hurting, too, but Dixon said she never had realized it. In that moment, she moved from being a victim to becoming a survivor and, now, an advocate.
She’s had to forgive without justice. She said she knows who killed her son; in fact, he was a regular at their home growing up. But she also knows that she can’t live with the hate that once consumed her.
Anyway, a conviction would be an imperfect justice, she said. Her son still would be gone. So she concentrates on what she can control, namely sharing her experience of gun violence.
Dixon is among a group of MAMA members who visits the county’s juvenile assessment center and tells them about Manuel. Dixon sees how those kids hurt. Many have lost relatives, friends or neighbors to gun violence. But she wants them to hear a mother’s pain.
“Every time you get in trouble, who do you call?” Dixon asks them. “Your mother. So why would you want her to feel like us?”
Dixon calls it a dose of tough love and hopes it will at least encourage these children to reevaluate whatever they were doing that landed them there. She reminds them that they’re the lucky ones: They’re still alive.
MAMA members speak with lawmakers about gun violence and sentencing reform. They organize toy drives, gather school supplies and host presentations about gun violence. They attend peace walks, neighborhood meetings and rallies.
The group has been recognized locally for its work toward a safer Palm Beach County. Williams has represented the organization at a gun-laws event at the White House hosted by first lady Michelle Obama, and MAMA has written to the U.S. Supreme Court arguing against life without parole for juveniles.
They speak of their trauma in the hopes that their organization will stop growing.
The nonprofit sustains itself on donations, Williams’ savings and volunteers, she said. Any money it raises goes toward helping families with funeral costs, renting the office space on Palm Beach Lakes Boulevard and paying for outreach events, such as the retreat Williams is planning this summer for children whose siblings have been killed.
During what can be a remarkably isolated experience, the association offers perspective on the scope of gun violence and evidence that mothers can survive, said Gibson, whose son was killed less than two months ago.
“Listening to (the other mothers) makes me think, ‘OK, Kamisha, you’re going to make it,’” the 41-year-old said. “I know now I’m not alone.”