Whitney

As salaam alaikum,

Inna lillahi wa inna ilayhi raji'oon. To God we belong and unto Him we return.

I didn't want to believe that she had passed last night, when I heard the news. She is yet another beloved person, an icon in popular culture and within the black community, that is gone too soon. From lesser-knowns like Gerald Levert to international sensations like Michael Jackson, so many black artists don't seem to make it too far past the age of 50. I mean, artists in general die young, I suppose it's a brutal world out there, artistry. The entertainment industry. Maybe the old folks weren't wrong when they said it was the devil.

I didn't want to believe and then it revealed itself to not be a fluke. She was only 48, her voice was power, her songs and renditions were classic, and she was beauty and pain. Beauty and pain, like so many others of our loved ones who have passed before in painful ways. She died in hard times. I take comfort that God is merciful and knows best, and that she is with Him now and not suffering as she was on this earth.

It's just with the passing of someone like her, the fact that she'll never sing, "I Will Always Love You," in this realm anymore, but that she continues to exist on recordings, videos, CDs, and the few vinyl records that our parents bought back in the day...is haunting, and makes this life seem even more magic, imaginary, illusion.

My favorite Whitney Houston album will always be the soundtrack to "A Preacher's Wife." Makes me all sorts of happy on the inside to hear her sing gospel. But I think is my favorite songs by her are "I Believe in You and Me" and "All the Man that I Need."









The next life is better than this!