5 Tweens and Teens 131Hypospadias/Epispadias Association: http://www.heainfo.org
Klinefelter Syndrome Support Group: http://www.klinefeltersyndrome.org
MAGIC Foundation: http://www.magicfoundation.org
Turner Syndrome Society: http://www.turnersyndrome.orgBereavement After Losing Friends to Homicide: Two African American Teen
Girls Speak
Celeste M. Johnson
Celeste M. Johnson, PhD is an associate professor of social work at Widener University,
Center for Social Work Education. She received her PhD from Bryn Mawr College,
Graduate School of Social Work and Social Research. She is a licensed clinical social
worker. Her scholarly interests include the experiences of traumatic stress, grief, and
loss in African American urban populations.Marie, Age 16“Actually, I was going to summer classes then . . . and . . . one of my friends
he actually come in and he was telling me . . . and . . . I really didn’t know
how to react. Because, I mean, I’ve heard about people being killed before
and all that... and people that I knew . . . but not someone that close to
me. And being [as] though that she... it was just like . . . she just gone like
that. That made no sense to me, and I think that was one of the hard-
est times I’ve ever experienced. That made me think I never know when...
it will happen to another one of my friends. . . . Like, she was the person doing
no wrong. She was actually innocent. It’s something like, well, that means this
can happen to any of my friends. So... I really didn’t know what to do after
that. It just was like I don’t know... my emotions kinda were just like . . . ‘I don’t
know what to do.’ So, I just cried as a result. I just cried and cried and cried.”Marie described a situation about 1 year prior to our talking together
when a close girlfriend was the unintended victim of a drive-by shooting that
was targeted for the teen male to whom Marie’s friend was talking.Heather, Age 17“And . . . even if . . . I mean, even if he did . . . it’s a word . . . Did you have to kill
him? Was it that deep? That the girl did that. . . . So small. It was so small. Dying
is so big. I mean it’s just a big thing. You’re never going to live again. [Becomes
teary] . . . over something so small. That it can go so fast . . . at any time . . . like,
just anything. . . . Who would have thought like that day, that would have been
his last day . . . Just like . . .like that.”Heather described the loss of her friend to murder, which occurred about
4 years prior to our talking together. A teen girl said that Heather’s friend
called the teen girl “the‘b’ word”—meaning bitch. The teen girl told another
male friend that she had been disrespected by Heather’s friend. The teen girl’s