Cynthia Williams' journey toward a new life purpose is fueled by pain. Her 17-year-old son was killed in a car crash caused by an inattentive driver.
"It was the day before my birthday, that I had to pull the plug. So, every year on my birthday I have to relive his death, and then I had to come home to three other children."
Christopher Williams was only 17 when he passed.
"Christopher was an all-around great kid like all around great kid. Everybody loved him. He was the life of the party," recalls Williams. "He was the one always got the families together."
The accident was 14 years ago, but for his mom it seems like yesterday.
"The visual, which was when I walked in the hospital, I saw my son's brain. His head was as big as two basketballs. I don't know about you, but I wasn't a science major. I don't expect to ever see a brain and I didn't want to see it that way! "
Williams was 35 years old at the time forced to yield to the agony of losing a child.
"Sometimes you're there for a parent sometimes you there for a sibling but it's nothing like being there for a child."
So, Williams formed "Love from Afar, the Christopher Allen Williams Foundation." It oversees Parents Against Distracted Driving or P.A.D.D.
"Parents Against Distracted Driving is for families who have lost any loved one to a car crash, automobile crash, motorcycle crash," explains Williams.
Unity rides are held throughout the year to raise awareness and money for P.A.D.D.
"One of our main missions support grieving moms and dads. You got to fight to fight to keep moving forward. You can't lose you can't give up; you can't lose your mind. Although it's very easy to do."
Through her sorrow Williams shifts her attention to parents facing a similar fate.
"No, you're not going crazy. I know what you're feeling right now, and I know that you're in a time zone war, like you feel like I'm not in the world actually."
She understands the roadblocks of unrelenting pain.
"I show up at a funeral, I support the family I let them know they're part of that I give them a care gift of things that they can deal with some information on grief. We give them an angel with their child's name engraved on it and just let them know that there's other people who's walked in their shoes."
Shonda Rushing got support from Love From Afar. Four years ago, her daughter Savannah Scott, a mother of three died in a crash at 54th and Auer. She was the passenger of a car with a driver who ran a stop sign and hit a light pole. Scott was only 23 years old. A promising life cut short.
"My daughter graduated from Washington High School as valedictorian. She was captain of her cheer squad."
Rushing praises Cynthia Williams for helping her survive.
"I was in such a fog. I didn't know where to start, where to begin. She just took me in and said 'this is what we're going to do. I got you don't worry.' My family and I we were lost, and I knew nothing about planning a funeral or arrangements or where to even begin. My daughter didn't have life insurance. It was a huge process, so she just basically took us under her wing."
Rushing adds, "Those first few holidays, she would call and say, 'How are you today?' I would say things that other people couldn't understand. She could understand. She'd say it's normal. It's okay."
Savannah Scott was a teacher about to get her master's when she was killed. Her mother with strong words for inconsiderate motorists.
"You're not only putting yourself in danger, you're on the road with multiple other people you. You are a danger to everyone around you, for the families that it tears apart!"
"It's so vicious and so tragic and violence, it's indescribable because you feel so alone, because most times people in your family hasn't walked through it so where you would normally call them for like the recipe for the dressing. You can cry at two o'clock in the morning when you want your baby."
Williams is comforted knowing that through love from afar her son's memory lives.
"People who never met him know him. That's amazing to me. I've had so many people support me who's never met him a day in his life is like breathtaking like, wow, I mean, it's been amazing. He would be a great adult. I know that he was such a positive light. He was a great big brother, and he would be great. He was definitely the angel we never knew we had!"
Williams says reaching out to grieving parents is therapeutic.
"It's so rewarding for me. and lets me know that I'm able to take things out of me and put them into them to let them know that they are, they can be a survivor like myself." Writing has also helped Williams. Williams wrote a book called "Concrete Soil." It's about her journey of loss, pain, and acceptance.
"You gotta believe that you were created to be a vessel. In this world for God, you've got to believe it."
Through Cynthia Williams and Love from Afar, parents find resiliency. They discover it's possible to find a path paved with hope.
"I know it doesn't seem like you're going to make it tomorrow. I know it doesn't seem like you're going to make it tonight. But you're going to make it. You got to stand up. It's not like God did this for you to lose your life. He did it for you to be a testimony. My purpose today is to let people know that you were created for a purpose, and you got to live it out."
"That's amazing to me. I've had so many people support me who's never met him a day in his life is like breathtaking like, wow, I mean, it's been amazing. He would be a great adult. I know that he was such a positive light. He was a great big brother, and he would be great. He was definitely the angel we never knew we had!"
Williams says reaching out to grieving parents is therapeutic.
"It's so rewarding for me. and lets me know that I'm able to take things out of me and put them into them to let them know that they are, they can be a survivor like myself."
Writing has also helped Williams. Williams wrote a book called "Concrete Soil." It's about her journey of loss, pain, and acceptance.
"You gotta believe that you were created to be a vessel. In this world for God, you've got to believe it."
Through Cynthia Williams and Love from Afar, parents find resiliency. They discover it's possible to find a path paved with hope.
"I know it doesn't seem like you're gonna make it tomorrow. I know it doesn't seem like you're gonna make it tonight. But you're going to make it. You got to stand up. It's not like God did this for you to lose your life. He did it for you to be a testimony. My purpose today is to let people know that you were created for a purpose, and you got to live it out."
