DUBLIN, Ga. — This weekend, mothers will be showered with love by their kids, grandkids, and family for Mother's Day. For one Central Georgia mother, this year's holiday marks another one without her son who died four years ago.
While she mourns his loss each day, she remembers a promise she made to him before he died -- one that's become her mission.
Dublin has been home for Anita Hill for more than two decades. The mom of four says it was never a dull moment raising all boys. She says she had a unique relationship with her oldest son, Franklin.
"To be honest, our relationship was kind of rocky once he graduated high school, so we butted heads because we are alike in so many ways, so he took my cooking skills and took it a step up," said Hill.
Through the high and lows of their relationship, she always stayed by his side, even when Franklin got life changing news in 2003.
"Well it was his high school year -- senior year -- when he was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes," said Hill. "I felt guilty, I felt I was a carrier or I may have passed it on."
The diagnosis forced Franklin to change his diet to improve his health. Still, at times, he would black out from the disease.
"The sugar would get so high, he wouldn't know what was causing it, so that's when he had to pay closer attention to what he was eating and drinking," said Hill.
As time went on, Franklin became insulin dependent. Through it all, he started working on a plan to share the story of his fight with others.
"2013, we did pretty well, we were in and out of the hospital. December 2017, we didn't know, but he had a heart attack," said Hill.
Doctors decided to operate on her son in Atlanta and they found a blockage, so they stinted him and shortly after surgery they found another blockage. From there, he was placed on life support and his body started to shut down.
"I brushed his hair and I said, 'This is it, you are getting ready to go be with God,' so I played one of his favorite songs," said Hill.
Franklin died on Feb. 11, 2018, and now Hill is working to share the story he wrote about his life with the world.
"During that, I made a promise to him. He called this his baby, I said 'Able to Kill Cain' will get published," said Hill.
The book was originally about the relationship with his brother, but Franklin instead wrote about his experience with diabetes.
"For her to find the time and keep the promise going... that's something that we talked about before he left this Earth. Man, it's just big," said Franklin's brother, Joseph.
She's hoping the community can rally together through her GoFundMe account to help get her son's book published.