I learned from my son yesterday morning that Erica Garner made her transition earlier in the day. In Kwanzaa, it was the day we celebrate the principle of Nia, or Purpose. Erica was 27 years old and a mother. I hardly know all that she was as a person, but I know she was on purpose in her activism for police reform, in the years since her father’s murder. Perhaps it is fitting that she left on the day of Nia, but I find no peace in it. Anger and grief have taken a seat alongside me.
Senseless loss after loss. The loss of her dad for the world to see and hear that he couldn’t breathe, sitting in Court day after day, only to hear the police who choked him to death are good to go. The bullets, the choking don’t stop with the dead. They ricochet into all those who are attached to him/her/them. They have to fight to keep their hearts beating and their spirit from its own demise.
A daughter now lost, her children now motherless.
Erica apparently had asthma and died from a heart attack, her second. You can’t tell me that the stress and loss of being treated over and again like you, your beloved and your community don’t matter wasn’t part of what took her heart out.
Erica, thank you for living out the principle of Nia. I’m sorry we and your family didn’t have you longer. Your efforts will not be in vain.
Thank you for putting words to this, thandiwe. I share your anger and grief.
Thanks Julia. Sharing is a part of healing.