Trayvon Martin's mother, Sybrina Fulton, finally got her day in court. The mother of the dead teen was called by the prosecution Friday morning to testify in the trial against George Zimmerman, the neighborhood watch commander accused of murdering Fulton's 17-year-old son. Video of her testimony shows a poised woman, a strong woman, a mom intent on doing what she can to get justice for her child. She managed to sit in open court and listen to her son dying on a 911 call crucial to the prosecution's case against Zimmerman.
How did she do it? I can only guess it's a testament of a mother's love for her son.
The call made by a resident of Sanford, Florida is chilling to hear as a complete outsider. Screams of "help" are so loud, they can be heard on the 911 call even though the caller says she's inside her home and refuses to go outside (for fear of her own safety).
Under oath, Fulton identified the screams as coming from her son, not shaking as a defense attorney pushes her, obviously trying to make her admit that she'd been coached, been told by someone else that it was her youngest child calling for help.
A mother knows her own child's voice.
There's been a lot of debate about this trial, about whether Zimmerman is innocent and Trayvon is somehow the guilty party or if the neighborhood watch commander pursued the kid in the hoodie carrying the bag of Skittles.
Who is to blame is up to a jury.
But the outcome shouldn't change your opinion of Sybrina Fulton, of her pain and of her strength. We should all feel for her as a mother who lost her child, a mother forced to do the unthinkable ... listen to her child dying and not be able to go to him.
How many times have you been sitting at a family function only to hear your child shriek from the backyard? You know, in an instant, that it's your child, and just as quickly you are up, running to help your child.
Only Sybrina Fulton couldn't help her child, at least not in the way a mother wants to. Her only option was to fight for him after his death. As she said on Twitter before being called to testify:
Day 19 - I pray that God gives me strength to properly represent my Angel Trayvon. He may not be perfect but he's mine. I plead the blood of Jesus for healing.
She had to sit in open court today knowing that it's too late. Those screams were Trayvon's last. She listened to her son dying.
And she kept it together. She was poised. Strong.
I don't know that I could have done it. Even knowing that this was not the first time Trayvon's mom was forced to listen to the 911 call, I put myself in her shoes, and I'm a puddle on the floor. I am a mom who cried when her daughter was being stuck with a needle for the state-required iron blood test. I am a wuss.
Sybrina Fulton is anything but.
She was a rock for her child because that is what she could do now for her son, her child, her son taken from her at just 17.
Watch her under pressure (in the first video, jump to minute marker 4:50 to hear her testimony begin):
See this video on The Stir by CafeMom.
And part two:
See this video on The Stir by CafeMom.
Put yourself in Fulton's shoes. What would you have done listening to that tape? What do you think of how she did on the stand?
Image via TheCount/YouTube