LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Candy Linear still doesn't understand why her 16-year-old daughter's life was cut too soon.
It's been three years, and still no answers about who took Nylah Linear's life.
"There's no way you could've told me that day that she wasn't coming back home and I stayed in that house two more years waiting," Candy said.
She said Nylah was in front of her aunt's house when a shooting broke out. Her daughter was caught in the crossfire.
"Everybody knows me as the mother who lost their daughter, it's kind of like you experience an identity crisis of not knowing who you are anymore," Candy said.
She is sharing her story to help other grieving mothers and father's through her organization, The Nylah Linear Foundation.
As more and more teens become victims of gun violence, Candy fears for the younger generation.
"There's so many children where Nylah's buried and that's not a kid cemetery but that's how they're dying," she said.
This year alone 47 kids between 11 and 17 have been victims of shooting incidents in Louisville, and just this week, two teens were arrested in connection with a fatal shooting of a 13-year-old.
Candy has dubbed this Sunday National Nylah Linear Day, where a balloon release will be held for Nylah and families of other children who have lost their lives.
"One of the mother's now is my sister because my niece was 16 when she was murdered last year," she said.
Candy said life doesn't always go on for parents who lose their children. She knows two mothers who died from broken hearts.
"Whatever day that anybody lost their child, a piece of them went with them that day," she said.
National Nylah Linear Day is Sunday July 21 at 1101 River Road.