Vincentian-born Judge Sheridan Jack-Browne, an elected New York City Civil Court Judge (2nd Municipal District), currently sitting in NYC Criminal Court, NY County, has told her impassioned story of her experience as a single mother following the untimely drowning death of her husband.
Civil elected judges can be assigned to Civil, Criminal or Family Courts, Judge Jack-Browne told Caribbean Life.
“I was asked to speak about my journey as a single mother, and I want to be honest with you tonight — it is not a journey I chose; it is one that chose me,” said Judge Jack-Browne, delivering the feature address at the 4th Annual Mother’s Day Tribute of the Brooklyn-based St. Vincent and the Grenadines Progressive Organization of New York (SPOONY), the New York affiliate of the incumbent New Democratic Party (NDP) in St. Vincent and the Grenadines, on Saturday, May 16.
The judge said she was invited to address the gala by SPOONY member Doris McIntosh, also known as her “oldest friend” because she met her back in St. Vincent and the Grenadines as a little girl while attending grammar school.
Judge Jack-Browne said her journey began in “the most unimaginable way” while she, her husband Magus Mukoro, and their two beautiful children — who were 7 and 9 years old at the time — were vacationing in Canada in summer 2015.
Ghanaian-born, Nigerian-raised Mukoro, 44, co-founder of the youth sports program Young Rock Soccer Academy in Brooklyn, died in a pool, on Jul. 29, 2015. He and his wife had just celebrated their one-year wedding anniversary.
Mukoro also worked as a paralegal with the Legal Aid Society for 22 years.
“My husband accidentally drowned,” Judge Jack-Browne said. “In one devastating moment, everything changed. The life I knew, the partnership I had built, the future I had imagined — it all shifted beneath my feet like sand washing out to sea.
“In an instant, I went from being a wife, to a widow, to a single mother,” she added, as patrons transfixed on her story. “And that is when I learned one of life’s most sobering truths: our labels are temporary.
“The titles we hold — mother, wife, partner, companion — they are blessings, but they are not permanent,” Judge Jack-Browne continued. “They can change in the blink of an eye. And when they do, what remains? What do you stand on when the ground beneath you gives way? I’ll tell you what remains: Faith.”
She said since then, she has held on to Matthew 19:26 — “With God, all things are possible” — “like a lifeline.”
“On the nights when the silence in the house was deafening; on the mornings when I had to dry my own tears before my children woke up, so they could see strength instead of sorrow; on the days when the weight of being everything to everyone felt like more than one person could carry it, I clung to those words,” the judge disclosed.
“With God, all things are possible — not some things, not easy things — all things,” she stressed, telling every mother at the ceremony: “Whether you are a single mother, a married mother, a grandmother raising grandchildren, a foster mother, or a woman who mothers everyone around her without a single biological child to her name, I want you to hear this: The strength you carry is not accidental; it was placed in you on purpose.”
But Judge Jack-Browne said that strength alone is not enough.
“I have learned — sometimes the hard way — that we must be intentional about maintaining what I call our three pillars of fitness: our mental and emotional fitness, our physical fitness, and our spiritual fitness,” she said. “As women, as mothers, we are notorious for pouring into everyone else’s cup while our own runs dry.
“We schedule doctor’s appointments for our children but skip our own; we counsel our friends through heartbreak but never sit with our own grief; we pray for everyone at the altar but forget to kneel for ourselves,” she added. “I am here tonight to tell you — you cannot pour from an empty vessel. You must tend to your mind; speak kindly to yourself; seek help when you need it.”
Judge Jack-Browne said, “there is no weakness in therapy, in journaling, in calling a trusted friend and saying, ‘I am not okay today.’ That is wisdom; that is self-awareness; that is strength.
Judge Jack-Browne described her story as “one of resilience, dedication and the pursuit of justice in the face of personal and systemic challenges.”
“And to every mother here — you are seen; you are celebrated; you are enough,” said Judge Jack-Browne, who migrated to Brooklyn at age 6 and was raised in East Flatbush by her Vincentian single mother, Jeannette Jack.
After graduating from Samuel J. Tilden High School, she attended Syracuse University, earning a Bachelor of Arts degree.
She later obtained a paralegal certificate from New York University and gained experience across several legal settings before enrolling in the evening program at New York Law School while working full time as a legal secretary in Manhattan’s Youth Part court.
Judge Jack-Browne said that experience “sparked a passion” for public interest and criminal law that defined her career.
She said she served as a court attorney in New York City Criminal Court for over 20 years, assisting judges on criminal law matters and facilitating both a Judicial Training program and a Citywide Summer Internship Program.
In 2025, she ran for a NYC Civil Court Judge seat in Kings County’s 2nd Municipal District and was elected.
Beyond the bench, Judge Jack-Browne said she is “deeply committed” to her community. She is an active member of Zeta Phi Beta Sorority’s Sigma Kappa Zeta chapter and chairs its Zeta Has Heart committee, focused on heart health awareness among Black women.
She is the former General Counsel of Vanguard Independent Democrat Association, also known as “VIDA,” a longstanding Brooklyn political club.
Judge Jack-Browne said she currently sits on the boards of Inspiring Minds, Inc., a non-profit organization that provides services to under-represented youths in grades 9-12 and Inclusive Community Wellness Inc., a non-profit organization that aims to empower New Yorkers to improve their health and well-being by providing groundbreaking wellness programs for NYC residents.
Following the tragic accidental drowning of her husband, Judge Jack-Browne said she founded The Magnus Mukoro Sports Foundation “to provide athletic spaces for NYC youth and promote swimming education in Black communities.”
She currently resides in Clinton Hill, Brooklyn, with her daughter and son.
Judge Jack-Browne said she guides her family with a “simple but powerful mantra”: “If I heal, my children will heal, too.”
