On the eve of Charlottesville anniversary Heather Heyer's mom speaks out: 'You survive. You don’t give up'

One year ago, Heather Heyer was hit by a car and killed during the Unite The Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia.

On Friday, her mother, Susan Bro, sat down with CNN's Anderson Cooper to talk about the healing process of losing her daughter.

"Heather Heyer's mom who had the sad duty and the privilege of carrying out her daughter's legacy. She runs the Heather Heyer Foundation, a program for people with a social passion for justice," Cooper said. "I know this is a tough weekend. First of all, how you holding up? How has this year been for you?"

"I bawled like a baby for about 10 minutes, and then I pulled it together and said, 'OK, back to work.' And so that's how I'm getting through the weekend is I'm staying busy. And then I'm going to collapse Sunday night and collapse Monday and then Tuesday, and I'm back at work again. Because that's what you do. You survive. You don't give up, " she said.

She warned people to stay alert this weekend while the Unit the Right rally is taking place.

"Don't let your guard down. Be aware of your surroundings. You don't need to be paranoid, but you need to be aware—there is a difference," she said."You don't need to live in fear, but you need to live in a little higher state of alert. This too shall pass, and just realize that when people hate, there are going to be problems. and there's really no place for hate."

She has to keep her daughter's grave site in a secret in order to protect it from people who would wish it harm.

"There is no need for anybody to visit Heather's grave," she said. "Even well-wishers would end up trampling other some mistaken person would maybe break some things or deliberately. But I will tell you that Emmitt Till's marker was recently shot up. In fact, it gets shot up on a recent basis. There are people in the world who will do stupid things like that."

Watch the video below via CNN.