Morgan Johnson, 15, never knew her mother.
She only knows what people have said about her: that she was bubbly, kind, funny, a hard worker.
But on Thursday afternoon, the daughter paid such a beautiful tribute to the mother she never knew that Mayor Rahm Emanuel had to wipe a tear from his eye.
Johnson is one of five children left behind 15 years ago when Brenda Sexton, a Chicago police officer, was beaten to death by her boyfriend.
Sexton’s killer, Sam Lupo, is serving a 60-year-sentence for the heinous crime. He beat her in the head with a baseball bat again and again. Three of the children were home at the time. They found their mother’s battered body in bed.
On Thursday, the mayor, aldermen, domestic violence advocates, police officers and friends of Sexton gathered to dedicate a fountain and garden to Sexton’s memory.
OPINION
The soon-to-be opened safe house and transitional housing facility is a project of WINGS, one of the state’s largest not-for-profit organizations addressing domestic violence.
WINGS Metro is a partnership of WINGS, the Metropolitan Family Services and the Greater Southwest Development Organization.
City Hall donated the land, the building and $1.8 million for the project. It will be the first domestic violence center to open in 10 years.
Rebecca Darr, the chief executive officer of WINGS, said that despite efforts to raise awareness, the need for services related to domestic violence is still great.
“I have been in this business for a long time, and [domestic violence] has always been about control,” Darr said.
“In Brenda’s case, she was telling him to leave. Leaving is always the most dangerous time for victims.”
Under a gray sky and blustery winds, the fountain was unveiled in a space adjacent to the old 8th District police station where Sexton would have reported for duty.
“The garden should be a place that women can go to in order to find answers to troubling questions in their own lives,” her daughter Morgan said. “The garden should be a place where a woman can feel safe in [her] own thoughts and opinions.
“ I never knew my mother, but from what my family has told me about her, I can tell she was a very strong and outspoken woman.”
Officer Jane Fudacz, who was Sexton’s field officer after Sexton came out of the police academy, said the garden was a fitting tribute.
“She walked these hallways,” Fudacz said. “She came to work here every day. Her smile lit up the whole room. This was her police station.”
Danette Wetterer, another police officer, knew Sexton before the women joined the Chicago Police Department. She said Sexton’s five children could have been her and her brothers and sisters 40 years ago.
“You could be educated,” Wetterer said. “You could be any race. Just because you have a gun doesn’t mean it will save your life. It could happen to anybody.”
Sexton would have wanted the garden “to be a place where women could go to find self-worth,” her daughter said.
The garden should be a place “where women can feel love, respected and valued when they fail to find those feelings in their everyday lives,” Johnson said.
Those should be the fruits of a love relationship.
