Imagine living your worst nightmare over and over. As parents no image is more horrific than that of your child, once full of life, now lifeless before you. If the world worked the way it was “supposed to” a parent would never out live their child. Children would grow up to become adults and then they would grow old. Sadly things don’t always turn out the way they are supposed to. The world we live in is one in which many parents live the heartbreak of burying their child or, in the case of Shirley Chambers, their children. The Chicago native lost her 34 year old son to gun violence this past Saturday. He was her only surviving son and the fourth child she has lost due to a shooting.
Describing herself as being “totally lost” and having “nobody right now,” it is difficult to fathom the pain she is feeling. It all started when she lost her fist child at the age of 18 in 1995 and her 15 year old daughter and later her son in 2000.
For the first time since 2008 “Chicago’s homicide count eclipsed 500.”
As parents we often feel that no matter how old they are, our children are our babies. If you turn on the news or pick up the newspaper you will see that “our babies” are dying. Parents, like Shirley Chambers, are burying their children, so many of them victims to violence. For more on this story visit The Grio.
BMWK — It is hard to imagine losing one child let alone four. If you could say something to Shirley Chambers what would you say? Why do you think so many parents are burying their babies?