It was a Saturday night, and I was at home eating a simple meal of noodles, when one of those ‘where were you when’ moments occurred. The phone rang, and the person on the other end said four words that seemed unreal, “Whitney Houston is dead.”
After saying a quick goodbye, I needed confirmation for myself, so, I flicked through television channels; FOX, CNN, and MSNBC, and all confirmed that Houston was indeed dead. According to ABC News, the evening before the 54th Grammys Awards show, six-time Grammy winner, Whitney Houston was pronounced dead at 5:55 p.m. Pacific Time.
News coverage of Houston’s death continued past midnight, with every media outlet hastily putting together an encapsulated version of her life, each having the same common threads; her drug addiction problems, her erratic behavior days before her death, and the history of her rise to fame. But for me, and I’m sure for others too, there was a sense of sadness.
Houston’s death reminded me of my own feelings after a sudden life changing experience, when the coroner pronounced my mother dead at 3:02 a.m. on December 26. A few hours before her death we were talking about catching after Christmas sales, and the next moment, I was holding her in my arms saying “Don’t go.” My face was the last face she saw. My voice was the last voice she heard.
So, I know personally there is pain behind the news headlines of Houston’s death; pain that her daughter, Bobbi Kristina, and other immediate family members are experiencing. When the numbness fades, they will begin to think about their own mortality, and the brevity of life. And, at the oddest times tears will come; walking in her favorite department store, the smell of her favorite perfume, an empty chair.
Whitney Houston died February 11, 2012, and as her family mourns her passing the words come to mind a man spoke to the mother of Drazen Petrovic, an emerging NBA superstar from Croatia killed in an automobile accident. Standing beside Drazen’s grieving mother at the cemetery a stranger said to her, “Don’t cry, you gave birth to him, but he is ours.”
Whitney Houston was ours too, and we share the grief with her family, and by sharing their sorrow maybe their pain will be lessened.
Sources
http://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/whitney-houston-dies-singer-found-hotel-bathtub/story?id=15567252
http://www.clubblazers.com/blazers-discussion/drazen-petrovic-t3867.html