Imagine waking up early in the morning to go to the grocery with your children.

Imagine being in the parking lot at your local Walmart and one of your children is murdered in front of you and their siblings, by someone you don’t know and never seen.

Imagine one of your children dead the others injured by the broken glass from the car windows as a man “you don’t know” in a red pickup truck speeds off.

Imagine turning to make sure your kids are okay and he stops and opens fire again, and this time hits you.

Feel hopeless yet?

Imagine being a mother wombed in the hospital crying out for your child. Racking your brain trying to figure out why? Asking yourself did I cut someone off, did I make a wrong turn, did I take their parking space… but no is the answer to all the question in your mind because you know you didn’t.

The roads were clear the parking lot empty. It was 7am on Sunday morning.

Imagine this being the last day you ever see your daughter with breath in her body.

Rest In Peace little Angel (Jazmin Barns)

It is with a heavy heart I repost this hoping this family finds the closure they need to move forward in healing. My greatest prayer for them is that they find the strength to live forward.

This story is very heart breaking as I can relate to the change they are about to experience. Losing a cousin who was like a brother to me at the age of 20 last year had me feeling anything but peace. I was angry and confused I remember thinking he was so young and had so much life ahead of him. He didn’t even get to be the man he is suppose to be yet. But sadly it wasn’t for me to decide. No ones words could comfort me to make me understand why the universe had done its mathematical duties on my family the way it had. I had just lost my grandmother a few months prior and my uncle the month before that. So in a six month time period I had lost three people I hold dear. So I.know what loss feels like but I won’t began to pretend I know what it’s like to lose a child, especially at the age of 7.

Five days after Christmas two days before the New Year. Her toys didn’t get to be old to her yet, she didn’t get to wear her new clothes back to school. She didn’t get to stay up late and welcome in the New Year with her welches sparking juice in plastic wine glasses like kids do, watching musical countdowns or movies on their #firestick. She doesn’t get to finish her 2nd grade school year or see the 3rd. She won’t get to experience her first heart break from a boy and receive the loving advice needed from a mother or father to get through. No proms, no fights, no dances, no wedding, no college, no first job, no chance. No more pictures, no more hugs and no more kisses. The families peace is gone and hearts shattered for doing nothing but being black.

My heart goes out to this family. The death of a 7 year old girl. The wounding of her mother and the forever lasting traumatic memory the sisters are left to experience. This mother will never be the same, these sisters will never be the same this family changed forever.

With deepest condolences and the warmest sympathy to the family. May you develop daily in strength as we know you will live the rest of your life with a broken heart.

BECAUSE WE ARE BLACK.

Love is the force that keeps the universe together. So hold all your friends and relatives dear, and celebrate each day you are here. This happens way to often and is saddens me to ask… is it really to much to ask to to exist in America and live without fear of death because of the color of our skin. Do all lives really matter if black lives don’t?

Another life stolen BECAUSE WE ARE BLACK.