Tyler Perry’s mother,  Willie Maxine Perry died on Tuesday.   She was 64. 

Condolences to Tyler for the loss of his mother.   I still have both my parents, and just wouldn’t know what to do, if one of them wasn’t around all of a sudden.   And right before Xmas.   Poor thing.

Let’s keep him in our prayers…

…just found out that a dear friend of mine passed away on Oct 4th.  Sherry Spruell was a long time friend of mine.  We were friends from elementary school; thru our addiction to crack, and thru our “recovery and re-discovery” of ourselves and our lives….

We spent a lot of time together in both instances. 

My friend knew I was moving back to Cali, and we’d made plans to get together.

Guess she didnt make it.

I don’t have many words right now.   I know that I feel a sense of loss, even before I’ve  gain anything -  if thats makes sense…

I guess I’ll never get to hear that infectious laff of hers; and no one could talk shit like Sherry.  She was just a great person to be around.   I’m glad that unlike a lot of addicts, Sherry was able to repair her relationship with her children and her family.  These are the things that make recovery worthwhile.

I will miss you, my friend.

You talk about a child done wrong. this is an old, close case, but I cannot think of what the fluck was goin’ thru this child’s mother, father and uncle mind; they were responsible.

She didnt have a chance…

6 mos old and raped repeatedly? Bite marks? Bruises-old, green, brown; old and new? And another uncle and the grandmother knew!? They got 3 days in jail… wtf!

These monster’s family wouldn’t even claim her lil body…and then built a fence around the memorial raised by the community that embraced her…

Dayumm! She was failed by so many…*

Bless her lil heart…

(This vid is 5 months old; it was a birthday party celebrating her 115th birthday April 6 with music, two cakes and a letter from Obama.)

LOS ANGELES – Gertrude Baines, who lived to be the world’s oldest person on a steady diet of crispy bacon, fried chicken and ice cream, died Friday at a nursing home. She was 115.

Baines, who remarked last year that she enjoyed life so much she wouldn’t mind living another 100 years, died in her sleep, said Emma Camanag, administrator at Western Convalescent Hospital.  The centenarian likely suffered a heart attack, said her longtime physician, Dr. Charles Witt. An autopsy was scheduled to determine the cause of death.

Born in 1894 in Shellman, Ga., Baines claimed the title of the world’s oldest living person when a 115-year-old woman, Maria de Jesus, died in Portugal in January.     “I’m glad I’m here. I don’t care if I live a hundred more,” Baines said in November after casting her vote for Barack Obama in the presidential election, “because he’s for the colored.”   She said she never thought she would live to see a black man become president.

 ”I enjoy nothing but eating and sleeping.”    Staff at Baines’ nursing home described her as a modest woman who liked to watch the “Jerry Springer Show” and eat fried chicken, bacon and ice cream.   She refused to use dentures.

The oldest person in the world is now Kama Chinen, 114, who lives in Japan, according to Dr. L. Stephen Coles of the Gerontology Research Group, which tracks claims of extreme old age. Chinen was born May 10, 1895, Coles said.

God Bless her lil Soul.  Im sure she’s a-restin’ right now.  She’s had a long row…

RIP Mama Baines*

A moment of silence  for the many who lost their lives in the WTC attacks on Sept. 11, 2001  .  My condolences to the families, friends, co-workers and casual acquaintances of these people, to have lost someone dear to them, especially under these circumstances…

I remember where I was when I finally realized this was happening and it was real, because at first I thought I was looking at a movie.  I was on my way out the door to work, and glanced at the screen on my way out.  By the time I got to work , it was the topic in everyone’s conversation.  Not only that, buildings were locked down & we couldn’t even go out unless we were leaving for the day.  No one was allowed in until it was confirmed that you worked there, and was scheduled that day & at that time. 

Once I realized what had happened, and the enormity of it all, I was devastated.   Planes attacking skyscrapers, people running down the streets feet in front of flames and smoke and flying debris;  they were jumping from 30-40 story windows!- trying to get to the lesser of two evils…

I know Jesus wept.

The war against terror is still on going. 

God Bless America- we need it.

never forget...

I parked John’s page at a host , Gone Too Soon, for now.  I really need to get in and re-do his page from scratch, but this will do for now.  Go by and visit when u get a chance…

John E. Davis

Thankx*

Today while shopping in Walmart, I got a disturbing phone call:

My “Gran”, Mrs Isabell “Bell” Jones, closed her beautiful eyes for the last time this morning around 3 a.m., in Merced CA. She died in her own home, in her own bed, at the age of 97.

Dayumm!

I kinda showed my ass in Walmart-I couldnt help but cry RIGHT THEN since this is my ‘Gran”- I guess I just took it for granted she would just always be around. Even in her 90’s.

I come from a “distributed, dysfunctional family. Due to the lack of understanding and ability to get along and work it out, my parents split and then we went thru various family members at one time or another till it all ended up just bein Gran. Yall kno how Granma’s is; mine live within in 3 blocks of us, and was in our house atleast 3 times a week (creepin round the windows, ‘plantin flowers’ n’ ish -being nosey the other days of the week!). They always comin in with somethin they bought at a yard sale or ‘from the good Christian people up the way.’, that “‘one a yall can sho fit; aint no use lettin it go to waste…” They were forever tryin to get you to church (mine succeeded-she had help with the rest of the preachers and deacons of the church-my aunts were in the choir and on the board and secretary of Sunday School; my uncle was the pastor). We were in church with keys, before anyone else. and ALL WEEK for sumpthin. Livin with The Gurls, as I call her and her sister Aunt Butch, her partner in crime!) there was always a prayer meetin, (Wed night), and choir practice ,(Thur) Sisters of MtPisgah AME (Sat afternoons, and especially if Sunday is the 1st Sunday!) busines meetin’ (Monday nights- and they ‘burned the morgage’ on that bad boy too!). And Aunt Butch had a side game called The Buds of Promise. Met on Saturday afternoons in the summer when school was out. Kept a lot of us off the streets.

I remember always goin to Grans house and clownin to spend the night because her house was always nice and toasty warm from the gas heater planted right in the livin room. On those night Gran would always make Jello with something different in it each time. Even loquats (Ole skool kno what that is!). We would fight to see who was gonna get to brush and play in her hair. Who ever won the privilege got to do it till Gran dozed off under the brush…like she always did.

In the summer thats where most of us basically lived anyway, and I can remember playin out in Gran’s back yard where there was always a wood/junk pile to play on and with. The yard was full of fruit trees and had a garden. I cant tell you how many days I have lain in that yard on my back full of peaches and plums, ripe strawberries, loquats, figs, and crab apples . There was an apricot tree that produce them as big as some of the vine-ripe tomatoes that grew in the garden. We busted out there full with salt shaker in hand… those were the days .

I guess this would be the time memories like this rush in. That and old age Old Age.

Dang Ima miss her. But while Im sad I am kinda ok with it. She was 97 years old. She had a great life and I guess last she knew it was filled with love. I think Im bein selfish some how; Im sad because she is gone from my life, I guess I just thought she would always just be over there in Calif bein my Gran….thats must be what Im cryin for…but this is the end of her life and not mine and I should respect that it is time…I dont know how I feel right now really but I think that kinda close to it.

My uncle said she went peacefully in her sleep with a smile on her face. My Gran had a lot to smile for. She raised 9 children which includes adopted, had a hand in raisin 18 grandchildren, who bounced approx 33 great-grands on her knee, of which have laid 14 great -great-great-grandchildren in her lap for her to smile down on…most recently my son had the privilege, with twins Wisdom and Adrian II, born just this past Oct 29th. She lived a life full of laughter and love and faith. And she goin home to people she wants to be with, her mother and father, sisters and brothers (one still livin’), children (she outlived 5), grand -children (1).

There will be a celebration.

The Queen has died.

…yes still missing my Milo.  I still cant quite wrap my head around the fact that someone would kill an innocent kitty-especially one as adorable as Milo- for nothing. 

Just to be mean.

I keep telling myself I will eventually get another kitty, but that doesnt seem to be too forthcoming.  I decide to go look for one and then I wonder what qualities I want him to have and then I start comparing him to Milo and he just never seems to measure up…

Oh well…

Back to the drawing board.

*

    HAPPY BIRTHDAY, CHERYL!  Today is Jan 26th.  On this day a dear friend of mine, who is no longer with me, was born on this day. Cheryl Ann Giddings Jackson was, and still is my “best-est” friend, I think “in my life”.  I met Cheryl shortly after we moved to Gardena in 1971.  We became fast friends along with another person, named Cresta Henderson.  We were the 3 Musketeers.  You never saw one without the other two.  We did everything together- dressed alike, dated brothers (Cresta was always in love with Patrick, Cheryl’s brother, all her life; they ended up with 2 children!), took the same classes…we were like one person spread out amongst 3 bodies…

 Cheryl would have turned 50 today, but instead, departed this life at the age of 26-way to soon…we still had things to do.  Sometimes I think of how things would have been had she live.  About our friendship, which I know would have survived.  How our children (her: Anthony Jr. and Nicole-me: Adrian and Jalina-boys first, girls second!) would have been friends, or “cuzins”, and the things we would have rode out as friends; infidelity (which led to her death), child rearing, taxes, frustrations, hormones, and falling bustlines; life.    I think about the late night phone calls we would have  shared, while one tried to comfort and soothe the other… like friends do…

Cheryl met and eventually married a man named Anthony “Tony” Jackson.   I remember their wedding, and the reception at Mahatten Beach.  I had visted Cheryl, and saw her for the last time,  at their first place when I was pregnant with my second child, in 1981.  I thought she was happy.  She looked happy…

Five years later, on  January 22. 1986 -4 days before her 29th birthday- Tony killed Cheryl with a shotgun blast to her chest in full view of her two small children, one of who was never the same after that day.  This all took place after an arguement about why HE was smokin crack and not bein a husband and father after 9 years of marriage (they got married right out of high school-hey, it was the thing to do in those days!)  She died of shock…

it wasnt supposed to be like this.

It really wasnt…

Its been  ’bout 20 years now, and tho I think of her often, January 26th is a special “think” day.  I wish her a happy birthday;  I “talk” to her; tell her things about me and whats been goin on in my life, like she was still here…I tell her she is still my “best-est” friend, and that I will never forget her.  

 And I never will. 

Happy Birthday, Cheryl.

I love you…

Rest in Peace, Boo.

  I recently found out that a dear online friend had lost her battle with cancer.  1Foxy56 was a dear women; she had the spirit of an angel, and always a kind word for all who knew her.

She helped me at one point in my life when it was all a mess; no one knew but she and I, and she let me lean on her whenever I needed to.  Even tho she had her own battles to fight…

 Foxy had many online friends and the founder and CEO of UrbanDour.com.  It was one of the first online communities I joined when I discovered the net in 2002.  We never met in person -tho UrbanDour did throw a few mixers-but we became friends off the bat, and remained so up till the end.    I was a faithful member till the site went down for the final time.    The site went down a few times, but Foxy always managed to bring it back bigger and better, even tho she was doing bad.   We all were made to feel like family over there.   I missed the signs;  I guess I just didnt know how crucial things were getting for her.    

I’ma miss you, Mama…

Ms Foxy will be sorely missed in my world. 

She will be forever a “teenager”, as she liked to say, in my heart forever…*