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Mother's Day celebration remembers slain children
Mother's Day can be extremely difficult for moms who have lost their children to gun violence. There's an annual celebration in Atlanta that remembers those lives lost and honors the women standing up for them.
ATLANTA - Moms all across metro Atlanta celebrated Mother's Day Sunday. But the day can be extremely difficult for moms who have lost their children to gun violence.
"He was just so sweet and kind," Twina Feliciano said.
Feliciano has so many special Mother's Day memories with her son, Ocasio.
"He would always make me like morning smoothies on Mother's Day and bring it to the bed and say, 'Happy Mother's Day, mom,'" she explained.
But last January, she lost the chance to make more of those memories after the 17-year-old was shot and killed at a South Fulton park.
"After school, they got off the bus. They went to a park, and there was an incident that occurred between him and someone in the community and my son was killed," Feliciano explained.
Too many other mothers share Feliciano's pain of losing a child to gun violence with dozens of kids shot and killed in Georgia in 2023 alone.
On Sunday, she joined many of them at a special Mother's Day Brunch hosted by the Spread Love Initiative. It's something they've been doing for 11 years.
"It's very important to have something like this to let these mothers know that they are still loved, and they are still important," Terrell Johnnies with the Spread Love Initiative said.
"They get you, and so they are now your community of support because they understand the loss that you feel and the emotions that you're going through on a daily basis but especially on a day like Mother's Day," Feliciano added.