To those closest to him, he was Perry or Floyd

For Courteney Ross there s a distinction between the man she still loves and the movement that bears his name I kind of have to separate Floyd from George Floyd announced Ross Ross met Floyd who she called by his last name unless I was getting mad at him and call ing him George Perry Floyd in Floyd was working safety at the Salvation Army s Harbor Light Center where Ross was waiting to visit someone Floyd noticed that Ross was becoming upset and offered to pray with her I just was so kind of taken back by how kind he was noted Ross of their chance encounter This was the first time she learned who he was someone who would patronage people when he saw that they needed help He had these big long arms that he would just kind of wrap around people and give them all types of assistance and love And he was doing that for me that night That same night he petitioned for her number and they shared their first kiss in the lobby It was really sweet and kind of magical Ross announced From that moment on we were together Ross described their relationship as having a quality of puppy love to it where she invariably longed to be around him When he worked protection at Conga a Latin bistro in northeast Minneapolis Ross would walk in while he was working She d dance by him sometimes and they d share a meal Floyd as both Ross and his uncle Selwyn Jones notified MinnPost had a playful sense of humor Ross who says she gets scared easily remembered how he stood behind doors shouting boo or screaming to frighten her I m like Oh my gosh you re so years old mentioned Ross chuckling He was consistently chortling and making things feel light and fun He was the life of the party He wasn t a big mean dude explained Jones of his nephew He didn t have a growl or snarl to him He was just unfailingly funny One of Jones favorite memories of his nephew who he called Perry was when Floyd met Jones mother-in-law Jones and his family his wife and two young children along with his mother-in-law took a drive to Minneapolis from South Dakota Jones mother-in-law a lily-white girl from Gettysburg South Dakota who had possibly only been around Black people at one time was now in front of a Salvation Army mission where throngs of people majority Black were sitting waiting and walking around Floyd seeing that Jones mother-in-law was nervous took it upon himself to take her on a walk outside the mission She was looking and she was clutching her purse and Perry was walking with her and stated Come on Mom it s OK Mom Jones laughed remembering the look on his mother-in-law s face when Floyd solicited her to open the car door and take a walk with him She wasn t racist or anything she just hadn t been around that several people that were Black at one time And it was funny as crap On May Floyd was murdered by then-Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin outside Cup Foods now known as Unity Foods a grocery store in south Minneapolis That s when Floyd became George Floyd when the man who prayed and played pranks died and a movement for racial justice was born in his name When Jones saw on television that a Black man had been murdered in Minneapolis he didn t realize at first that it was his nephew who had died After all he d never really called him George Even before he realized it was his nephew who had been murdered however Jones was angry The murders of Breonna Taylor and Ahmaud Arbery had only happened and days prior respectively I was pissed off to say the least And to find out that that young man was somebody that I had just left in Minneapolis two weeks prior it sparked the chain of events in my life that will never be the same reported Jones Jones who still lives in South Dakota now devotes his time to fighting for racial justice He is the chief executive director of Justice a foundation that combats systemic racism and injustices and hosts a podcast Setting it Straight with Selwyn Jones where he interviews those who have lost loved ones to murder police brutality and incarceration as well as those advocating for justice in a variety of spheres In the present in addition to combatting police brutality and racism Jones is advocating for missing persons mental wellness awareness and tackling domestic violence Jones has also advocated in particular for physiological civil rights bills and provision which would mandate that anatomical assistance be provided to those who express a need for healthcare assistance during a police encounter Bills like these Jones stated would have prevented the deaths of not only his nephew but of other Black people at the hands of law enforcement George Floyd s uncle Selwyn Jones stands in front of a Minneapolis mural featuring an image of Floyd This mural was previously displayed at the now-demolished Lake Street Kmart building Credit George Savage The Savage Agency Jones will be returning to Minneapolis this weekend to go to a concert see a gala and have my heart tugged on He ll do what he does each time he arrives stand for a while at th Chicago the place where his nephew took his final breaths I perpetually have to go and stand by that spot and just know that he left right here for a reason commented Jones And that is for the world to have a better chance to be equal For Ross it s only of late that she s felt as though she s healing I can get through an interview like this without falling apart she reported I can talk about Floyd without crying my eyes out I can get through the days go to work and be a positive role model for other people It was over the past year that that happened fully In the past year Ross mother was diagnosed with and later survived cancer Ross in caring for her mother realized that she could care for others and for herself I had already been working so hard on trying to get better and take care of myself and going to grief therapy and all the things that you re supposed to do but I hadn t had that radical shift and caring for my mother really gave me that shift where I could see myself being productive again in this world explained Ross Beforehand she felt as though she might live life trapped in that grief Since his death Ross feels Floyd s presence guiding her a guardian angel leading her not where she necessarily wants to be but where she necessities to be During the first memorial for Floyd she was placed at the back of the auditorium While she was initially upset to be placed in the back sitting there allowed her to connect with the mothers and spouses of others murdered by police I sat next to them and they took me in from that moment noted Ross They lifted me up they prayed with me They supported me from that moment I thought These are my new sisters It was through these women that Ross became involved with Families Supporting Families Against Police Violence Through the organization she s been able to meet with and assistance others who have lost loved ones as a upshot of police brutality The police are everywhere and they are supposed to be the people that are there to protect us And when something like this happens you have to face every day knowing that they re out there and you have to see them everywhere commented Ross It s very traumatizing Working with the families that have been through that has been key not only to helping them but really helping myself I think I m going out to help and then what really ends up happening is a mutual exchange because we lean on each other While Ross is developing in the movement for change and justice she declared she can t let the movement change who Floyd was to her If I start to take in too much of the movement I get overwhelmed I forget to just love him for who he was and who he is to me now announced Ross I have to really keep that connection sacred Sometimes I will participate in things that have to do with George Floyd but they are hard for me They re a lot heavier for me I take on a lot of people s emotions and their heartaches because so multiple people were heartbroken when he died We re talking about billions of people in this world that suffered because of his death It s a situation that not several people go through to have their loved one become both person and symbol But Ross knows other women have been in this position before I would think of Corretta Scott King how she was married to Martin Luther King but he was a movement He was a man that was beyond this world but she knew him just as someone she loved I m sure she had to separate that too commented Ross And then I would think of JFK and I would think of how his wife would handle herself in these big moments For her own wellbeing there are two Floyds There s the George Floyd movement for racial justice and equity and then there s the man the big teddy bear who prayed with Ross in a Salvation Army and waited behind doors to scare her To this day he is the love of my life declared Ross The post To those closest to him he was Perry or Floyd appeared first on MinnPost