In October 2017, Audrey Labrie Rhoads’ mother Lavonne passed away, and it hit the family hard.
Audrey, who went by the nickname Brie, had been attending grief therapy and was starting to feel a little better.
But now, her family’s grief is compounded. Brie and her fiance Raheem Brown were shot and killed July 8, 2018 in Southwest Philadelphia. The couple left behind their two daughters, Sanai, 6 and Su’Rah, 4.
U.S. Marshals in Ohio arrested a 22-year-old man on Feb. 10 in connection with their homicides.
“They say it gets easier with time, but it really doesn’t,” Brie’s niece Erin Rhoads said. “You just learn to cope with it. I think about her, and I think about my grandma, and it’s double. It’s like I have two holes in my heart.”
Brie was born Jan. 19, 1993 and raised in Southwest Philadelphia. She was a graduate of Bartram High School.
When she was young, her brother Aaron, Erin’s father, was shot and now uses a wheelchair. Helping to care for him led Brie to pursue a career as a home health aide.
Being a mother was her main focus, though.
“She was never the partying type, she was always in the house with my little cousins,” Erin said. “She loved being a mother to them. She was always doing their hair and dressing them nice, the things she used to do with me before they were born. She really, really loved her kids.”
Brie had a glimpse at what it would be like to be a mother through her close relationship with 17-year-old Erin, a senior at Olney Charter High School. Erin was Brie’s first niece and they were eight years apart in age.
With a laugh, Erin remembers how Brie, whom she called “Auntie,” would do her hair so tight that she’d be in tears. But what she misses most is how her aunt was always there for her.
“She molded me to be the strong woman I am today,” Erin said. “She taught me how to deal with stuff and she prepared me for life and she taught me a lot of life lessons. She always had my back.”
Now, Erin intends on being there for her cousins as they grow up without their parents.
“My little cousins are just babies and they were so close to their parents. It was a household, and they lost both of their parents,” she said. “They don’t really know what’s going on, and that hurts me because I don’t want my cousins to have to go through that. They don’t deserve that at all.”
She added: “I can’t be sad all the time and be down because I can’t give up,” she said. “They’re going to need me. My aunt did that for me her whole life, and that’s how it’s going to be for them.”
Brie and Raheem had been together for nine years. Erin said that they “had unconditional love for each other, and everyone could see it. It was always Raheem and Brie. If you see Raheem, you’re gonna see her.”
Brie was looking forward to Erin’s senior prom—more than Erin herself, she said. She took great joy in celebrating important milestones in the lives of those she loved, and in January of this year, her family celebrated what would have been Brie’s 26th birthday.
The family brought in food and there was a backdrop with Brie’s picture. Rather than a sad day, it was a celebration of her life. There was even a custom Snapchat filter commemorating it.
“We just want to keep her name alive in a positive way,” Erin said. “I miss her, I love her, I know she wanted the best for me and that’s why I want to stay on my A game and make her proud.”
A few days before Brie’s death, she and Erin talked via FaceTime. Brie was making spaghetti for her daughters.
“She said, ‘Come down here, I want to see you,’” Erin said. “But I never got the chance. I try to tell people now that you think you can wait on stuff, but you can’t. I never would have expected this. I thought we had plenty of time.”
Brie is laid to rest at Friends Southwestern Burial Ground in Upper Darby.
Date: 2018-07-08
Location: 5500 Elmwood Ave., Philadelphia, PA
