There’s a whole economy built around Mother’s Day. Families often go all out to show the mom in their lives how much she means to them, and rightly so.
According to the National Restaurant Association, Mother’s Day is the busiest day for restaurants. It’s a yearly ritual to take mom out to eat, shower her with flowers, gifts and tell her that you love her. But holidays like these can be difficult. There are people whose mothers have passed away. Then, there are people like Cheryl Jackson, a mother whose son was killed by violence.
“To be honest with you, I don’t do too much on the holidays anymore. I don’t cook on the holidays anymore. I’ll call around to see who cooked and say bring me a plate of food, or I’ll go around and get a plate. I don’t know. I just can’t do the holidays anymore,” Cheryl told me.
Before Walter Jackson was shot to death in his car in New Orleans back in 2015, Cheryl Jackson loved to cook. The day before that deadly shooting in the 2800 block of Palmyra Street in Mid City, Cheryl cooked her okra gumbo for her first born. When he left her home in Marrero, she sent some gumbo home with him. It was the last time Cheryl saw her son alive. It was the last time she cooked okra gumbo.
In the eight years since her son’s murder, there have been dark days for Cheryl. There has been frustration, but there have been no arrests or suspects named in her son’s case. Cheryl came to see that other moms in the greater New Orleans area were stuck in the same and seemingly never-ending loop of pain, grief and anger that dominated her life. In 2018, she founded A Mother’s Cry, a support network for mothers who have a child's life taken by violence. The harsh realities of the city make such a support system necessary. Listen to my conversation with Cheryl as she tells the story of a mother’s undying love here.
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