KANSAS CITY, Mo. — On a day that used to be filled with celebration, one family is mourning the loss of their daughter, sister and mother.
“It’s been six months, but this is the hardest six months of my life,” said Carolyn Pettiford Sanders, mother of Ashley Pettiford.
Pettiford Sanders takes each day one step at a time.
“It’s not an end to grieving, you never know when you will stop grieving,” Pettiford Sanders said. “Especially when you gave so much love and so much time to a person.”
Pettiford Sanders' daughter Ashley lost her life in February when she was found shot and killed in a vehicle along with her boyfriend Jermaine Jackson on Linwood Boulevard and Agnes Avenue in Kansas City, Missouri.
“It’s hard. I’m not going to sit here and act like I don’t cry," Pettiford Sanders said. “I cry, I get up and I keep forward because I have her son to take care of.”
Ashley's son was found shot in the vehicle along with her and Jackson.
“He’s getting to the point where he is asking about his mom, and he’ll say that he misses her. But he’s doing good some days,” Pettiford Sanders said.
She says raising her grandson, who just started kindergarten, can be challenging to navigate as they both learn to cope with the loss of Ashley.
“He understands," Pettiford Sanders said. “... How he talks about her is, 'I wish mommy was here.' We pray every night — he prayers for her.”
Being lifted up by family and friends has helped her heal, especially Saturday, Sept. 3, which would have been Ashley's 32nd birthday.
"I gave birth to that beautiful baby 32 years ago. To celebrate her today means the world to me,” Pettiford Sanders said.
Just as the balloons released in Ashley's honor, Pettiford Sanders says she and her grandson will continue to rise above the dark days ahead.
“When I look at him, I know he is part of my daughter and I can't do nothing but love on him,” she said. "Even though she’s not here and to keep trying to move forward is a hard step, we're taking it.”
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