Mom offers support to others who’ve lost kids to deadly crime

AUGUSTA, Ga. (WRDW/WAGT) - Childbirth brings on a new set of emotions for each parent.

Clara Taylor never knew she could love one human so much, let alone eight of them. But being a mother of eight brings on fear of every little thing.

In 2006, she lost her first son to gun violence after a drive-by shooting in Augusta.

She remembers feeling so lost, so confused, wondering if the pain will never go away and what you even do when a child dies.

Just six years later, she would experience that same pain again in 2012 when her son Andre died in a motorcycle accident.

And as if life couldn’t get any worse, Taylor’s daughter Felycya, who identified as transgender, was shot dead at 33 years old in Augusta.

Then when Keshia Geter was murdered in the summer of last year, Taylor says a light bulb of change sparked in her.

“One day, you’ll get up you’ll be just as bright and happy, and then some little memory come by. It’ll make you go back to another level,” she said.

Leaving Taylor to grasp for anything she could find for help

“I wish I would have had more open arms to help me guide to guide me through some of the pain that I went through,” said Taylor.

She had to go and meet Keshia’s mother to create something new here that would help all families in the CSRA with loss.

Out of this, she has created a new group called A Mother’s Fight, which has launched its website and is working on gaining nonprofit status.

The program will be there to support not only transgender youths and families who are affected by guns but all families who have lost children.

Some of those victims were transgender and died from gun violence. Leaving Taylor determined to get in contact with these mothers.

“You don’t know what to say. You don’t know what to do. And usually, you’re sitting there frozen. So I want A Mothers Fight to come in, to come in and say, okay, baby, this is your next step,” she said.

“We are reaching out to victim victims, parents, loved ones that are going through a time,” said Taylor

Walter Santiago says by taking the weight off of these families allows for education, healing, and resources to help in a time when everything feels wrong.

“How do we teach each other to be honest, be honest with ourselves, be kind love one another? I mean, simple principles and values, where ours are really strong at A Mother’s Fight. And I think that’s really, that’s really what the inception of it is and how it’s brought us all together,” he said.

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