Jo Ayn Stovall was working hours away from town on May 3, 2007, when she found out that her son Brenton had been in a wreck on Reynolda Road.
She didn't know how bad the accident was until she got back home and learned that Brenton, an 18-year-old freshman at N.C. A&T State University, had died.
That memory is seared in her mind, said Stovall, who was one of about 200 who gathered to think of loved ones at the fourth annual Memorial Walk to Remember, held yesterday morning at Miller Park.
The walk honors children who died early, regardless of the cause.
"It's amazing," Stovall said. "It's a release of all your emotions again."
Organizer Willette Mosby-Reynolds started the first walk in 2007 because she wanted to do something to remember her daughter Ronnetta, who died in 2001 in a traffic accident.
Mosby-Reynolds had heard about similar walks held by the Compassionate Friends, an organization for those grieving after the loss of a child, but she couldn't find anything similar in Winston-Salem.
So she asked around for volunteers and found several people willing to pitch in.
The first walk took place on July 21, 2007.
"It was overwhelming. More than 400 people showed up that day," Mosby-Reynolds said.
Since then, attendance at the annual walk, including this year's event, has held steady at about 200 people, with both new and returning participants coming out to remember their loved ones.
There is no charge for taking part in the walk, meant to help people through the grieving process. The event costs about $1,000 a year to put on, with about half of the cost covered by sponsors and the rest by Mosby-Reynolds and her family.
Stovall said that one of the major draws of the walk is that it gives people a safe place to express their emotions -- a place where they won't be judged by others.
It's a sentiment Mosby-Reynolds hears often.
"Each year I usually say I'm not going to do it again, because it's out-of-pocket expense," Mosby-Reynolds said. "But because of the encouragement I always get from everyone, I continue to do it."
Jessica Hood took part in the walk for the first time.
She was there to honor her brother Bradley, who was born with severe damage to his intestines. He survived surgery but died afterward.
Hood and her husband, Tim, heard about the walk through a friend.
After the walk, she sat with the rest of the walkers to hear a reading of the names of all the children who had died. Participants then gathered in a field, where they released balloons, colored red and white to symbolize love and passing and which had notes attached with messages remembering the walkers' children.
Hood and her husband watched, smiling, as the balloons disappeared into the sky. "It's just good to be here and have this support," Hood said.
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