The Powerful Testimony of a Detroit Mother's Forgiveness

I found this story in the Detroit Free Press tonight.

Mourn my son, grieving mom says, but don't wear black
Wednesday, May 11, 2005

BY AMBER HUNT MARTIN
FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER

Tamiko Walton wants the whole city of Detroit to attend her only son's funeral. On one condition: You can't wear black.

"No one wears black because this is not a sad occasion," she said Wednesday, as her niece showed off the snazzy, new red suit 8-year-old Devon will wear when he's buried Monday.

"This is a happy occasion. I know where my son's going."

Red was Devon's favorite color - "a lively color," she said - and mourners should dress accordingly.

Walton, 29, holds onto her faith as she says goodbye to her wide-smiled son, the boy who helped strangers at grocery stores load bags into their cars and insisted on reading his mother bedtime stories.

Devon may have been killed on Mother's Day - his body dragged for more than a block after a car slammed into him as he rode his bicycle - but Walton said his spirit will live on.

And, in that spirit of love, she forgives Cornell Jackson, the man police say was behind the wheel.

That, too, comes with a request: She wants Jackson to find God.

"I don't have a heaven or hell to put him in," she said Wednesday. "I ask him to fall on his knees to God for forgiveness, and don't get up until God tells him to."

Come back to the Thursday edition of the Free Press for more from the grieving mother who has captured the heart of metro Detroit.