The passing of MJ
I was sitting on the sofa in my family's living room, playing The Sims 3 while my younger sister was playing some handheld Nintendo game. Our mother was seated on the love seat, checking her e-mail and Facebook. It was sometime between 5:30pm and 6:00pm EST when she announced that she needed a group hug. I asked her what was wrong and she pointed at the lap top screen; a window was open on some website (dishiness.com) that was reporting that Michael Jackson was dead; she'd seen it in the status of one of our mutual friends frm church. Well, I'm not prone to such news stories until it's confirmed by AP. So, as my mother cried, we spent two hours watching CNN, whch seemingly ended up being one of the last to confirm his death but by then it had already been reported by AP that he had died.
My mother was inconsolable but it didn't really have anything to do with MJ. It has to do with his age and our family. He was 50. Neither one of my mother's maternal grandparents lived to see their 50th birthday due to health issues. My mother's father died as a teenager because of stupidity (Russian Roulette). My grandmother is one of 18 kids, 1 of 12 on her mom's side, 1 of 6 on her dad's side; on her father's side she's lost 2 before they turned 50 (one was murdered at 28, the other died at 41); on her mother's side she's lost at least 5 not just before they turned 50 but most of them before they turned 5. Then there's extended family. Our family is filled with tragedy and lives cut short due to health problems, stupidity, or senseless acts of violence.
My mother will be 50 in 8 years and last night her mortality caught up with her. She's not so much concerned about her but about how it'll affect me and my sister if she dies young. She's always told me that she's DNR (Do Not Resuscitate) and she means it. I also think her tears had something to do with the fact that her mother, my grandmother, told us last week that she may have thyroid cancer but since the specialist is so booked up, the surgery and biopsy isn't until August 27.
My mother was inconsolable but it didn't really have anything to do with MJ. It has to do with his age and our family. He was 50. Neither one of my mother's maternal grandparents lived to see their 50th birthday due to health issues. My mother's father died as a teenager because of stupidity (Russian Roulette). My grandmother is one of 18 kids, 1 of 12 on her mom's side, 1 of 6 on her dad's side; on her father's side she's lost 2 before they turned 50 (one was murdered at 28, the other died at 41); on her mother's side she's lost at least 5 not just before they turned 50 but most of them before they turned 5. Then there's extended family. Our family is filled with tragedy and lives cut short due to health problems, stupidity, or senseless acts of violence.
My mother will be 50 in 8 years and last night her mortality caught up with her. She's not so much concerned about her but about how it'll affect me and my sister if she dies young. She's always told me that she's DNR (Do Not Resuscitate) and she means it. I also think her tears had something to do with the fact that her mother, my grandmother, told us last week that she may have thyroid cancer but since the specialist is so booked up, the surgery and biopsy isn't until August 27.