MILWAUKEE — Through the bond of motherhood and the bond of loss, about two dozen Milwaukee mothers gathered on Friday to lean on each other for support and strength in one of the most unimaginable circumstances.
"I feel their pain, I feel the same exact way they feel. I just feel like it's was my calling to bring all us mothers together," said Tiffany Copeland, the founder of the non-profit A Mother's Cry.
Copeland lost her son Montez Mcafee in the summer of 2019 to gun violence. He was 21 years old.
"You're not thinking about their mother, their father, their grandparents, their kids. Y'all are not thinking about any of that, y'all are just shooting to shoot," Copeland said.
Four years after her son's death, Copeland is working to turn her anger and grief into something positive through her non-profit.
"I just know they need to be around other mothers to comfort each other, it's just something that I needed to do, I've been wanting to do it since my son died," she said.
The gathering on Friday honored mothers who have lost a child, mostly to gun violence but some to illness or reckless driving, treating them to dinner, gifts, and a network of support.
Golda Randolph has already found the support she was seeking through the group.
"I have not been doing good at all," Randolph said of the last few months since her son Cotez Leflore-Randolph was killed. "This is special to me, to get to know what other mothers are going through and what I can get help to deal with cause I don't know how to deal with it."
For mothers seeking that kind of support, you can reach out to Copeland at amotherscry10@gmail.com.
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