INDIANAPOLIS — Armonie's death is one of many tragedies that have shaken Indianapolis families in the last few weeks.
"Within a matter of maybe 10 to 12 days there were 5 to 6 children who were involved in gun-related incidents," Rae Karim, Grief Coach and Founder of Good Grief Now said.
Karim said about two weeks ago, she got a call from a principal because three kids at his academy under the age of 5 were impacted by gun violence.
"My timeline on Facebook alone was just overtaken with people expressing their grief around it," Karim said.
In her profession to help heal others, Rae knew she had to do something.
"It exists. There is nobody who won't experience grief at some point in their life. I just want to offer a safe space to talk about it, to release, to share, to gather resources, and to just be in community," Karim said.
So, Karim took to social media about Monday’s grief support community conversation.
"A friend of mine actually shared the flyer on Instagram. I said maybe. So, I sent it to her, and she said yes," Robyn Dixon said.
A simple post that led Robyn and her daughter Symfhani to the conversation.
"I have a degree in psychology, and I dealt with a lot of grief, and I thought, 'I can problem solve all these things myself. I got all the tools already.' But it's actually not going that way," Dixon said.
Robyn and her daughter have experienced tragedy and want to do the work to get through it.
"The anniversary of one of my nieces just passed in July and her birthday is tomorrow. So, this was the perfect time for us to get involved and it's important to me to show my daughter how we deal with things the right way and walk this journey together," Dixon said.
"After the situation, I was really like putting everything off and trying to distract myself but then I realized I'm not the type of person to want to be at school all day to feel like I need to pound homework on myself. That was me pushing away the feeling that I actually needed to fill," Symfhani Dixon said.
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In a room filled with therapists and coaches.
"Live fully, grieve freely, and enjoy often," Karim said.
To fill Robyn and Symfhani with the tools for better days ahead.
"It makes me happy that we’re able to make those kind of decisions and that she knows the importance of it. It makes me sad that we have to be on the journey at all. Very excited that we can do it together and figure it out," Robyn said.
Rae said she's looking forward to making "Safe Here" a monthly event, so the community can get the grief support they need to live healthier lives.
