DORCHESTER, MASS. (WHDH) - Loved ones of victims taken by violence participated in an annual walk Sunday to spread a message of peace.
Those participating in the 23rd annual Louis Brown Mother’s Day Walk for Peace walked from Dorchester to City Hall, all to raise awareness about how violence impacts Boston neighborhoods.
“Tomorrow is not promised, so cherish the last moments that you have or whatever moments you have with your family members and your loved ones,” Victoria Maestre said.
Maestre is participating in the walk to remember her sister, 23-year-old Jassy Correia, who was killed earlier this year.
Correia, a mother herself, disappeared after leaving a Boston nightclub.
Her body was found in the trunk of a car in Delaware several days later.
“It is just a lot, a lot to take in just to think that she is not here, that she is not coming back,” Maestre said.
Maestre was just one of many at the march mourning a loved one lost to violence.
“This is not me,” one mother said. “I used to be a strong lady, now look at me, because they killed my son.”
Today’s marchers, many of whom are mothers, said they showed up to project resiliency and togetherness in the face of grief.
“We walk in memory of and we also walk in honor of those that are living to create a generation of peace,” Clementina Chery of the Louis D. Brown Peace Institute said.
They say their loss has given them a purpose: to try and make a better world.
“We are making a commitment to work together to protect each other’s children,” Chery said. “We do not accept where one mother’s child kills another mother’s child. That is not who we are.”
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