Phänomenal muss es sein und ein Link!



1998. The era of jiggy rap, baggy jeans dial up internet. We were also still reeling over the recent loss of rap icons Tupac Shakur and Biggie Smalls.

I had just finished my sophomore year of high school, and I had ended it on a high note — what’s better than being a popular teenage football player in the Washington, D.C. area with girls on the brain and not a care in the world?

In 1998, my God-driven, preacher of a father strictly forbade that “gangsta-rap” from being played when he was around. Now, my mother, a music fanatic; was not expected to (because she would’ve laughed in his face) adhere to this policy, so when Dad wasn’t around, Mom let us listen to everything from Wu-Tang to Bone Thugs-N-Harmony, and even watched Rap City, getting excited when Puff-Daddy (Diddy?) danced around with Mase while wearing shiny suits.

My mother was the quintessential cool mom in the neighborhood. She was the only reason I even played football, because she was the biggest Redskins fan in the world. She let all my friends hang out over the house, and made us cheeseburgers and Kool-Aid at least once a week. There was a point where my friends would come over to hang out with her instead of me, which I thought was the most annoying thing in the world at the time.

Then came the summer of 1998 — the summer that changed my life forever.

One night, at 2 a.m., I was awakened by the strange sounds of moaning and crying above me, and sprinted upstairs to see what was going on.

My father was trying to console my mother, who was crying and laying on the ground, pleading for her life.

I didn’t know what else to do, so I picked her up and carried her downstairs, whispering to her that everything would be ok, as I laid her on the couch. This was the scariest moment of my life.

My mother was having a stroke.

I was told to stay home with my little brother and sister, while my Dad followed the ambulance to hospital. When it was finally time to go visit my mother in the hospital plenty of times before that (she had health issues before), but this time was different. When I walked in, the doctors told my family that my mothers brain was scrambled from the stroke, she was paralyzed on her left side, and she would never walk again.

Instead of chasing girls and working out with my football friends, I spent most of the summer days and nights in a rehab center that my father, sister, brother and I visited on daily basis.

It was the weirdest summer of my life. My usually energetic, outgoing mother was the most incoherent, gibberish speaking person I had ever met in person. She would say things that were so off the wall that my little sister was scared of her. Her brain was really scrambled and she didn’t have a clue where she was at or what was going on.

One day, my Dad woke up and told us that God told him to bring his wife home.

This act went against all the Doctor’s orders — especially my own 15-year old objections — but he made the facility release her, and she rode home that day with us, talking about how pink the moon was in the daytime.

Since we couldn’t converse like we used to, we would just spend the summer days sitting on the couch watching BET & MTV, where the occasion ramble took place under her breath.

One day, MTV premiered a brand new music video — it was titled “Just the Two of Us”, and it was a song Will Smith made about his son, Trey Smith (There was no Jaden or Willow around just yet.).

As usual, we sat in the living room watching the video in silence, when suddenly my mother sits up in her seat, and says something I will never forget.

“You didn’t tell me Will Smith made a new song! I love this!”

I stared at my mother like she was crazy.

What I am saying, I may not have believed if I didn’t live it. My mother stood up, gave me a kiss on the forehead, went into the kitchen, and started making us two some lunch — like everything was normal.

God is my witness, my was her normal self from that point forward, right up until she passed away in 2005.

Even though my mothers passing was (and still is) the most heartbreaking thing I have ever been though, the summer that she almost left us made me appreciate her more than words could ever explain. There is no stories, statements, secrets or dreams that I had left to share with her when she passed, because I made sure that I told her how much I loved her every single day moving forward. We really lived each day like it could be your last, with no regrets within our relationship.

From CDs to Ipods to Tidal & Spotify; “Just the Two of Us” has been and will always be part of every playlist I ever create.

Thank you Will Smith for following whatever thought gave you the inception to go into the studio and rap about the love of your son.

Thank you Dad for listening to God over everyone.

Artists, follow your hearts, because you never know whose lives your art affect. And to everyone, if God gives you the vision to do something, you probably better do it ;)
 
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absoluter traumjob <3
 


yep das wars, ich begrüße unsere vr overlords, rip humanity
 
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