ST. LOUIS — The candles have burnt out. The roses long ago lost their luster, but a small shrine still stands next to a plaque memorializing Michael Brown Jr., just off the street where he was killed.
Brown's family knows what a day like this — the first anniversary of George Floyd's murder — means for Floyd's family.
"After seven years you could still feel the pain," Brown's great-uncle, Pastor Charles Ewing, said.
Ewing remembers the exact moment he found out about Brown's death.
"They said 'Mike Mike' — We called him 'Mike Mike' — 'He got shot.' I said 'he got shot?' And then automatically I just... I broke down, started crying," Ewing said.
The pain Ewing felt spread well past Brown's family, past Ferguson city limits, reigniting in Minneapolis last summer.
Licensed professional counselor Richelle Shorter said it is okay for people to grieve again even if they didn't know Floyd personally.
"If you're angry, you're sad, you're confused, you're disappointed, you're scared, we acknowledge all of that so we can work in those spaces," Shorter said of accepting the trauma so many Americans felt while watching the video of Floyd's death.
Shorter says anniversaries can be painful but necessary.
"We mark the moments," she said. "We mark the moment. What ideally happens at some point, is the association changes."
Shorter works with patients so they associate their trauma with something positive instead of a loss. Ewing says he's already at that point, grateful to see political and social changes.
"We've seen a lot of progress taking place in Ferguson and also in St. Louis County," he said.
A family friend declined an interview on behalf of Michael Brown Sr. adding, "The Browns have passed and sent their prayers to the Floyd family on this day of mourning."
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