School Nursing

The Relentless School Nurse: Mother’s Day 2024 – A Reminder to Celebrate & Activate

Robin Cogan, MEd, RN, NCSN, FNASN, FAAN
Illustration from Fellowship of Reconciliation

 

A Day of Joy and Pain

Mother’s Day celebrates the powerful bond between mothers and their children. It’s a day to shower love and appreciation on the women who nurture us, support us, and help shape us into who we are.
 
For many families across America, however, Mother’s Day carries a heavy weight of grief and loss. The grim reality is that gun violence has torn apart too many mothers and children, leaving an empty chair at the table where a loved one should be.

Shattered Lives

Evelyn’s son Jacob was just 17 when he was caught in the crossfire of a shooting while walking home from school. One stray bullet ended his promising young life in an instant. For Evelyn, Mother’s Day is now an agonizing reminder of the child she lost far too soon to senseless gun violence.
 
Across town, 7-year-old Mia makes a homemade card with her crayon drawings, but it’s bittersweet. Her mother Sarah was shot and killed by her estranged husband during a domestic dispute last year. Mia will place the card on her mother’s grave, wishing she could give her one more hug.
 
These are just two of the countless stories of mothers and children who have had their lives shattered by guns. The gunfire may have been brief, but the trauma and heartache are eternal.

Glimmers of Hope

Yet even in the darkest moments, the resilience of the human spirit shines through. Support groups form, allowing those grieving to share their pain and find solace together. Advocacy organizations like Everytown work tirelessly to enact common-sense gun laws to help prevent future tragedies.
 
On this Mother’s Day, families will gather to celebrate the mothers still with us. They’ll cherish the precious moments, knowing how fragile and fleeting life can be. And in their hearts, they’ll hold space for the empty chairs, honoring the memories of the mothers and children lost too soon.
 
It’s a day of complex emotions – joy, sadness, love, and determination to create change. As the nation grapples with its gun violence crisis, may this Mother’s Day renew our commitment to build a safer world for all families.
 
 

Mother’s Day can be a happy reminder to celebrate the maternal figures who have impacted our lives. 

However, because of our country’s gun violence crisis, Mother’s Day is a more painful occasion for many. Mothers and maternal figures are among the more than 120 people killed by gun violence and more than 200 others who are shot and wounded every day in the United States. 

The United States will mark Mother’s Day on Sunday, May 12, 2024. This day and year-round, Everytown is remembering the mothers grieving their children and children grieving their mothers. We also hold space for the families whose loved ones are still living, but are indelibly marked by the realities of surviving gun violence. – Everytown Survivor Stories

 
 
Reference:
 
 
 
 
Resources to take action:
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

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Published by Robin Cogan, MEd, RN, NCSN, FNASN, FAAN

Robin Cogan, MEd, RN, NCSN, FNASN, FAAN is a Nationally Certified School Nurse, in her 24th year as a New Jersey school nurse in the Camden City School District. Robin is the New Jersey Director for the National Association of School Nurses. She is proud to be a Johnson & Johnson School Health Leadership Fellow and past program mentor. Robin has been honored by multiple awards for her work in school nursing and population health. She serves as faculty in the School Nurse Certificate Program at Rutgers University-Camden School of Nursing. Robin writes The Relentless School Nurse, a popular blog. Her extensive work in school nursing was included as a case study in the National Academies of Medicine Future of Nursing 2030 report. You can follow Robin on Twitter at @RobinCogan.

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