Johnson unexpectedly died from a heart attack on August 29, 2010, at age 78.
Johnson’s own daughter, Goldberg, was one of the youths she led toward a brighter future.
“She was just odd enough to recognize the oddity in her child,” Goldberg recalled in aBBCinterview.
“I couldn’t figure out why I wasn’t more devastated,” she said.
Shortly after Emma Johnson’s passing, Goldberg first channeled her grief by staying busy.
I wouldn’t put that kind of sparkle in anybody’s eye."
Goldberg felt that mothers in general were their children’s first loves, in a way.
Goldberg imagined Johnson telling her.
