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For many churchgoers, singing praises brings a sense of comfort — a way to express themselves and rejoice. But for Pamela Bosley, it only brings sadness. Music has become a painful reminder of the day her son was shot and killed.

On April 4, 2006, Bosley, a choir director at the time, stopped listening to gospel music. That day, her son Terrell Bosley was gunned down at 116th and Halsted Streets outside a church on Chicago’s Far South Side. Terrell’s case remains unsolved.

“To this day, I don’t really listen to the music anymore like I used to,” said Bosley, a member of the New Bethlehem No. 4 Missionary Baptist Church. “I turn it on a little bit, but it hurts, ’cause I hear the bass line playing and I know my baby can do that.”

Terrell played the six-string bass guitar and was pursuing a degree in music at Olive-Harvey College. He was killed at age 18. A shared love of music created a strong bond between Bosley and her son, she said, adding that a communication line was always open.

But in the year following Terrell’s murder, Bosley tried to kill herself twice.

“Terrell was my life; it’s hard to pick up and keep going when you don’t have your child. So I’m depressed sometimes and I still try to fight through it because I have two other children, but some days I just want to lay in bed and not get up,” Bosley said quietly.

She said the safety of her two sons, Trevon Bosley, 15, and Terrez Bosley, 19, motivated her to reach out to troubled youth in the community.

She and her husband Tommie Bosley founded the Terrell Bosley Anti-Violence Association, an organization focused on delinquency prevention programs. And Bosley began coordinating a youth group called the BRAVE Youth — Bold Resistance Against Violence Everywhere.

Bosley, from the Roseland neighborhood, also started working at The Ark of Saint Sabina, a community youth center on the South Side, where she serves as the violence prevention manager.

But it’s Bosley’s work with an organization called Purpose Over Pain that may have the farthest-reaching effects. Co-founded in 2007 by Bosley, her husband and fellow grieving mother Annette Nance-Holt, the organization brings together parents who have lost their children to gun violence.

Nance-Holt’s son Blair Holt was shot and killed on a Chicago Transit Authority bus after leaving school May 10, 2007. Like Bosley, Nance-Holt said her life was forever altered the day her son was murdered.

“In the blink of an eye my whole life changed and there was nothing I could do but plan a funeral that I never should have planned,” she said.

After meeting Bosley, though, Nance-Holt said she found a purpose. Nance-Holt, Bosley and other members of Purpose Over Pain act as the voices of their children, speaking out for them since they no longer can, Bosley said.

The organization’s members advocate for stricter gun control, reach out to at-risk youth and provide an initial support system for parents of murdered children. They travel to and from Washington, D.C., encouraging others to stand with them in their fight to end gun violence.

“We figure that if we pull together, maybe we can change the hearts and mindsets of America,” Nance-Holt said. “We want to make sure that guns are in the hands of people who should have them.”

Bosley also meets with representatives in Springfield, Ill., to push for “common sense” gun laws, which promote requirements such as universal background checks, limiting the number of guns sold to each individual and limiting the number that a person can carry, Bosley said.

These restrictions could stop some of the influx of weapons to gang members, according to Jona Goldschmidt, associate professor in the Department of Criminal Justice and Criminology at Loyola.

“In my mind, there’s only one solution, and that is banning all handguns,” Goldschmidt said.

However, more than anything else, Bosley said the South Side needs career-based jobs for young adults, better education and more funding for youth programs.

These things, she said, will keep teens out of gangs and make the city of Chicago a safer place for kids like Terrell. And that’s exactly what Bosley and Purpose Over Pain are fighting to accomplish.

“The pain is not going to go away. It’s something we’re going to live with the rest of our lives, but we can make a difference on behalf of our children,” Bosley said.