Columbus mothers smash their grief, leave it behind

COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) -- Mothers of Murdered Columbus Children gathered for what the group called Release the Grief on Monday night, leaving their pain behind in 2024 and moving to 2025 with a new outlook.  

To start the new year with a clean slate, participants wrote down everything they wanted to leave behind on plates and then smashed them to pieces.

"So writing down your grief, your feelings, whatever you feel inside on a plate, but she’s taking it one step further and that is we’re going to release it and release it meaning that we’re going to break those plates,” said Rhonda Clayborn, a member of MOMCC who lost her son to gun violence in October 2020.  

“If I’m just being honest, you know, when he was first killed, you hold a lot in, you try to be strong for people, but throwing a lamp into the wall? I’ve done that so I know it feels good,” said MOMCC member Audrea Hickman, whose son was killed in April 2020.  

Each participant got two plates and they wrote the same things on each, sharing what exactly they wanted to let go of before the new year. That included grief, pain and guilt from losing their children, but people also wrote about procrastination and negativity. Then they all broke one of their plates and kept the other as a reminder.  

“So, to be able to do it and not have regret about it, like you’re able to do this freely and to say I’m just throwing it away, I can’t wait,” Hickman said.

The release of their grief happened on a Downtown Columbus street. After everyone’s plate was smashed, they picked up the pieces and threw them away for good.  

“Release some of that grief, release some of that hurt, release some of those thoughts that you think during the holiday season and it’s a part of learning to live again,” Clayborn said. 

Columbus has had 123 murders in 2024, but MOMCC is hopeful the city will see a decrease in that number in 2025.  

“We believe in what we’ve been speaking for this past year and we see that it worked,” Hickman said. “Did we get the outcome that we wanted? No, we didn’t, but we know that what we were doing made a difference.” 

Although the group didn’t accomplish its goal of under 100 homicides this year, group leaders said 2024 was just the beginning. The goal, under triple digits, will remain the same for 2025.