MEMPHIS, Tennessee — Families are grieving after a young man and 17-year-old were shot this week in Frasyer. It's a reminder of the increasing number of young lives in Memphis taken more frequently due to gun violence.
A mother whose son was killed 8 years ago shared how she turned her pain into purpose.
Sherman Wilson’s mother describes her son as outgoing and community-driven.
“He loved to crack jokes,” said Marsha Wilson. “His friends really miss him. Sherman was the type that he really kept them in their place. He wouldn’t allow them to smoke or drink around him.”
Wilson’s son was only 20-years-old when he was shot and killed in 2014.
The shooter was a neighbor who Sherman knew well.
“The yellow tape now is becoming familiar in this city,” Wilson. “Everywhere you turn it’s yellow tape and it’s a symbol of violence.”
She got the news of her son being shot from her nephew.
He said ‘Something bad has happened, Sherman has been shot in the eye.' I said ‘what’ and I could hear Sherman in the background and he was screaming to the top of his lungs.”
Sherman told his mom he wouldn’t make it.
“He said mom I’m going to die, mom, I hurt so bad.”
“I saw Sherman on the stretcher and I don’t even know if he was breathing or not,” Wilson said.
She learned from a paramedic Sherman was gone.
“He kept talking in the past tense, everything was like I did everything that I could, said Wilson. “I just want to let you know that we stood by him.”
Two years ago the shooter reached out to her.
“I did forgive him because that’s the only way I can get on with my life.”
She said she’s now her son’s voice.
“I just try to turn my pain into purpose. I do that by just visualizing and thinking what Sherman would want me to do.”
Wilson founded Linking Hands 901.
“I just try to engage in the community and reach out to moms that are facing the same grief I am.”
She held a retreat this past weekend for grieving moms and teamed up with Voices of Black Women United, a project of the Woodson Center.
“We loved on each other, we cried.”
Sherman’s mom said the hurt feels brand new even years later. She prays for two things.
“I ask that God shepherd my mind and he comfort my mind. I’m not going to tell you I’m strong but that some days are better than others.
She’s telling other moms who have lost their own children to seek support.
“Oh healing, my heart still aches. I’m going to tell her that don’t try to do it alone.”
She shared what her son’s legacy is.
“I just want to build a platform of hope that all of this will cease.”