ORANGEBURG, S.C. — Orangeburg resident Michelle Green is no stranger to grief. She lost two of her sons to gun violence. Now, she's cultivating a space for other mothers to grieve together.
“When it comes down to it, nobody truly gets it except for a mother who’s been through it," said Green.
Green says her eldest son Isaac was killed by gun violence in Columbia in 2006, and then her youngest son Carlton was killed nearly one decade later.
In 2022, she was introduced to the Voices of Black Mothers United, a national support group designed for mothers who lost their children to gun violence. This empowered her to create a local group here in South Carolina to let other mothers know they aren't alone.
“They can look at me and they can see that 2006 I lost a child and I’m still here and here it is 2016, I lost another child, and I’m still here. So our encouragement is to help these mothers to turn pain into purpose," said Green.
The group had its first virtual meeting this month where grieving mothers across the state were able to come together. Over the next few sessions, mothers will learn more about the different stages of grief and how to process them.
“I just wanna make sure that my parents understand, my mothers understand that we have to grieve, we have to have that courage to actually grieve the death of our children, but we can’t get stuck," she said.
The next scheduled session is July 3 at 6 p.m. For more information, email voicesofblackmothersunitedsc@gmail.com or call Michelle A. Wilson Green at (843) 830-3541.