Last night we told you about the sudden death of peace activist Therese Felix. The 46 year old died at the KHMH following an acute asthma attack over the weekend. It was a quiet passing of a woman who has been anything but quiet since May of 2006 when her son Tyrone Felix was murdered. Since then another son was killed and two more were shot. It was Felix’s personal grief but she parlayed it into a public mission as the co-founder and vice president of Mothers Organized for Peace. Keith Swift looks back on her journey.
Keith Swift Reporting,
We first met Therese Felix in grief and anguish. Her oldest son Tyrone had been shot dead on mother’s day of 2006 near his home on Gill Street.
[May 15th, 2006]
This morning Therese Felix mother of 24 year old Tyrone Felix walked me to the corner of Gill Street and Faber’s Road. At very corner inside a yard that belongs to a relative of hers, she showed me where he died. She had covered it up with sand but she could still remember him lying there before dawn on Sunday morning.
Therese Felix,
“I don’t know. Tyrone is my second son, I have a son older than Tyrone. I have four left, I had five and now I am left with four. I am trying
to be strong because I have them, I can’t be crying but it hurts me because my son is only 24.”
Hurt and frustration which six months later Therese Felix turned into a movement. She transformed personal tragedies and community pain into points of light in July of 2006 when she led grieving mothers and a regular folks in a march for an end to the violence.
[July 3rd 2006]
Therese Felix,
“This one is for peace. After this I will contact you when everything starts to happen. I will keep you informed, this is just the beginning.”
But the very violence she fought and marched to end – continued and in December of 2007 it claimed another of her sons. The second to die was her youngest boy - Faron – which sent Therese to the brink.
[December 3rd 2007]
Therese Felix,
“I want to know why and why and why and why he…what do they want to do, play with mind? I don’t want them to play with my mind because they don’t want my mind to trip because if my mind trips I won’t just go to the person who shot him. I am out there trying and trying for peace and they are destroying me.”
But Therese held on. Less than a month later in January in 2008 another of her sons was shot at. Therese the peacemaker told 7NEWS she was hurting.
[January 9th 2008]
Therese Felix,
"They will kill them and bury them, I am not burying no more, I am not burying no more. I no intend to bury no more. I am not saying what I am going to do but like I said I am not burying no more and I no intend to bury no more. I cannot bury my children, 6,7 and 8 no man ah ah some mother has to take a stand and I will to take that stand now because this is unbearable, this unbearable.”
But Therese we knew never gave up on peace. We can now only hope she will rest in peace.
Along with peace, the one thing Therese Felix longed for justice. The man accused of killing her son Tyrone Felix was James Swan Jr. who was freed from the charge due to insufficient evidence. 17 year old Norman McKenzie, and 28 year old Jason “Cat” Gentle are awaiting trial for the murder of Faron Felix. A funeral service for Therese Felix is scheduled for Friday afternoon at St. John’s Cathedral.
