Featured Image: Basket of roses that attendees tossed into the ocean in honor of 2016 murder victims.

Corliss Smithen |

ST. THOMAS  – A small crowd converged at Emancipation Garden Sunday afternoon to celebrate the lives of their murdered loved ones during a somber and poignant ceremony to mark National Day of Remembrance for Murder Victims, which was jointly organized by the Victim Services Unit of the Department of Justice and the Family Resource Center.

During the event, two survivors of victims – Kimesha Wade, who lost her fiancé three years ago and Aloma Blake, whose son was violently killed about 10 years ago – reflected on the lives of their loved ones.

Wade told those in attendance of the struggles she faces as a single parent raising her son alone after his father, Andre Christian, Jr., was killed on Sept. 28, 2013.

“Being a single mother has changed my life,” Wade said. “It has tested my physical and emotional strength, my ability to manage my time and personal life… As a single mother, I bear the weight of making ends meet on one salary to try and equal the second income his father would have brought in.”

Wade said she feels proud, though, when she is able to relax with her son, watch his favorite television shows with him and see his comfort in her.

“My son is my pride and joy, my heart, my soul and my world, and even though this job is every bit as gratifying as it is exhausting, it made me see how much of a strong, independent and responsible person I am,” she said.

Wade also vowed that these streets will not take a hold of her son. “I am breaking the cycle and I am raising our next doctor, lawyer, or aero-engineer. I am 100% vested in my son’s success; he will be someone great,” she concluded. Continue reading Murder Victims Remembered →