Early Saturday morning, as she helped set up for the inaugural Buffalo Black Caucus at Canisius College, Zeneta Everhart couldn’t stop crying upon seeing a beautiful quilt that depicted the faces of the 10 people killed in the mass shooting at the Tops Markets on Jefferson Avenue one year ago.
“I broke down,” said Everhart, the mother of shooting survivor Zaire Goodman. “And it’s because I’m just so grateful that I got to keep my kid. Those families can’t say that, so it was just so emotional seeing their faces up on that quilt.”
All 10 of those killed in the racist massacre were loved family members, ripped away by a white supremacist who had never met them. Several of them, including Celestine Chaney, Pearl Young, Geraldine Talley and Ruth Whitfield, were mothers, and, in some cases, grandmothers, the matriarchs who passed down wisdom, brought together loved ones and were the center of family gatherings. Another one of the victims, Margus Morrison, had plans to see his mother after doing some shopping at Tops that day.
A cruel reality of the one-year remembrance of the worst mass shooting in Buffalo’s history, a day when several mothers were lost and many others were affected, is that it lands on Mother’s Day.
“This is going to be the first Mother’s Day without my mother,” said Mark Talley, son of Geraldine Talley.
“It’s very difficult,” said Garnell Whitfield Jr., son of Ruth Whitfield. “Mother’s Day will never be the same again, obviously. But at the same time, though she’s not physically here with us, she’s still here with us spiritually. So we’re very thankful for that.”
Talley and Whitfield spoke while attending a community gathering for reflection, healing and hope on a sun-drenched Saturday afternoon at the Johnnie B. Wiley Amateur Athletic Sports Pavilion, where families came together for a day of prayer, healing activities and food. Community members placed flowers near a memorial that displayed photos of the 10 people killed…
Read the full article here
Leave a Reply