My ManCHILD
On 4/18/2011, I woke up to what I believed to be a nightmare but was really the end of life as my family and I knew it. At 11:35 pm, I was told my 19 year old son had been shot. Raising my children here in Howard County seemed to be a way to shield them from such violence so this news couldn’t be true for this very reason. As I rushed to University of Maryland Shock Trauma, I didn’t know what I would find once I arrived and this unknown shook my entire being. Many hours later, I was greeted by a doctor who informed me that my boy had been shot at point blank range 10 times……at that moment I just needed to see my boy and tell him how sorry I was that this happen to him and that I love him. as I was told to follow the red line on the floor that would lead me to my only son, I began to pray….Pray like I had never prayed before! As I got closer to the very swollen body laying on a gurney that didn’t really resemble my son, I began to lose the little bit of composer I had left and at that moment I heard God tell me to STAND, and for 10 days I did just that. Never letting my son see me break, making the waiting room my home, and holding my sons hand thru several sleepless nights. We are now home, here in the place where I once believed to be the safest place to raise my children. Our home, that is no longer sweet but just home.
