My Story

I remember the day it happened as if it were yesterday - on October 6, 2008 my son Marcus Lamont Brown became a victim of gun violence when he was murdered in his home during a robbery. The last time I saw my son was the night before his murder. I dropped him off at the apartment he shared with his brother just around the corner from our home and told him that I loved him. The next day was Monday and that morning I was getting my grandchildren ready for daycare. I went in the house to get my phone and noticed that I had missed several calls from my oldest son, Terrence. I called him back and he told me that Marcus had been shot. I stayed on the phone with Terrence asking him about the ambulance, asking him what the EMT’s were doing, asking him why it was taking so long for them to get to the apartment. My husband, hearing the alarm in my voice from the other room came to see what had happened. I told him. I called on my close friends to help me get my grandchildren to daycare and my youngest son to school so that we could get to the hospital. I remember feeling like Marcus wasn’t going to make it. When we finally made it to the hospital we were placed in a waiting room for what felt like an eternity.

  A group of hospital staff came into the room to tell us they had done all that they could but that my Marcus was gone. I remember feeling like I was in a movie. I couldn’t cry. The police instructed me that when I went in to see his body, I was not allowed to touch him because he was considered evidence. My husband and I went in the hospital room to see his body. He looked as if he was asleep and it took every ounce of my being not to touch him. I went home a numb human being and all I could do was lay in my bed and cry. I had to somehow continue to live my life and I didn't know how.

I could not say his name or talk about him for a year. I went through so much and tried everything from therapy journals to prayer. In the third year of my grief I decided to create a Facebook page in his memory and I named it Reidentifying Normal. My mission was to help others like me deal with tragedy by providing a platform to share experiences and provide emotional support to those who have lost loved ones through tragedy. Today, I’ve created this website to expand on that idea. I think it is vitally important to talk about gun violence and bring light to social injustices specific to black people and people of color. Reidentifying Normal is how I have learned to live even though a piece of my heart is missing.