Honoring a life cut short by senseless violence
Acts of kindness, community service and outreach are the best way to remember the late Bianca Roberson.
It is one of the rites of parenthood. In the next few weeks, parents everywhere will deal with the prospect of sending their loved ones off to college, severing that familial umbilical cord that kept their offspring safe in the nest and comforts of home.
Very often it’s more shocking – and more of an adjustment – for the parents than it is for the kids, anxious to get out on their own.
Michelle Roberson was very much looking forward to just such an experience. But it was snatched away from her in a moment of madness.
She is the mother of Bianca Roberson, the 18-year-old Rustin High School grad who was gunned down in what police have described as a road-rage incident.
Back on June 28, Bianca, her mom and grandmother were out shopping for things for Bianca to take with her when she set off for Jacksonville University to start her college career.
It’s a trip she will never take. And an agony that her mom can’t shake.
Bianca got into her car – the 2009 Chevy Malibu her parents got her on her 16th birthday – and headed home. All three women arrived and departed the shopping center in separate cars.
Bianca was driving south on Route 100 in West Goshen in the area where the road narrows to one lane as it funnels traffic onto Route 202 when police say she was confronted by a man in a red pickup truck looking to merge into the single lane. Police say the driver of that red pickup fired a single shot into Bianca’s car, striking her in the head, killing her.
Forty-eight hours later, David Desper, of Trainer, turned himself in at his attorney’s office.
Last week the Robersons, Michelle and her ex-husband Rodney, were joined by family and friends at the preliminary hearing for Desper. Desper waived his hearing and was held over for trial on a slew of charges including first-degree murder. Desper was only in the courtroom for a few minutes before being hustled back to Chester County Prison.
If only Michelle and Rodney Roberson could escape the prison they have been in since June 28 that easily.
Bianca Roberson would have started classes at Jacksonville University in Florida this week. She and her mother had planned a road trip starting Wednesday, with a stop to visit relatives in Georgia along the way.
It’s a trip Michelle Roberson will never make.
Instead of celebrating the next phase of her daughter’s life, she is dealing with the crushing loss of a child.
It’s not the first time she has confronted this type of grief. Her son Mykel Rowley, Bianca’s older brother, died of heart disease several years ago.
Mykel suffered from muscular dystrophy that affected his heart. Losing Bianca – in a senseless moment of madness involving a gun – is something else altogether.
“He just took her dreams,,” Michelle Roberson said of the incident. “He didn’t have that right.
“I can’t get her back, I need to get her back and I can’t . I need to comfort her and I can’t. I’m her mom and I can’t do that.”
Bianca will not be joining the 600 members of the Class of 2021 at Jacksonville University. But her spirit will be. Bianca had planned to major in criminal justice, with her goal of one day working for the FBI.
In the weeks after Bianca’s death, the school announced the Just Be Kind initiative, inspired by Bianca, as well as a scholarship in her name.
The initiative will put an emphasis on acts of kindness, community service and outreach.
Maybe we could all emulate these simple actions in Bianca’s memory. First and foremost, we should all think of her every time we climb behind the wheel. Before flying off the handle at another driver, perhaps first we should consider, what would Bianca do?
Tom Taggart is chief admissions officer at Jacksonville University.
“We believed we were about to get a lot better having Bianca in our community,” Taggart said. “She was an exceptional young lady, which was a testament to her parents and family with the way she was raised.”
We’re all a little worse off in her absence.