I thank God for having a praying mother. She saw to it that all her kids know who God was, and this has kept me in God’s hands all my life.
I had to attend church each and every Sunday. And until this day God has kept me. When I think back on having to go to church, it was the best thing for me and my brothers.
My brothers and I had a singing group and we sang all up and down the North and the South. We went as far as New York up North and South Carolina down South.
There’s one thing I don’t seem to understand so well: How could I outlive my whole family, living the lifestyle that I have lived? My whole family is dead.
My baby brother passed at the age of 37 of AIDS, in 2001. My mother passed this life in 2003 from high blood pressure, at the age of 61. Then my only other brother left this world in 2005 from the use of too many drugs, at the age of 44. My dad was the last to pass in 2011, at the age of 71.
Living the way I did there is no way I should have outlived my old family.
But I do understand today that God kept me here for a reason. I have OD’d on dope about 13 times. I’ve had guns pointed at me, and the person holding it pulling the trigger, but God would not let the gun fire. In my life I have done so many things that could have gotten me killed. But God didn’t have it planned for me to die that way.
When I think back over my life, I’ve been better than blessed. That’s why I try to be a blessing to someone else each and every day of my life today.
I remember when we used to go to South Carolina every summer to my parents’ hometown. It was so much fun to be in the country where the air was so fresh and the people were so nice.
But I always wonder how my life would have been had I been born in South Carolina.
My mother moved to D.C. in October 1959 and I was born in November 1959. I was almost born in South Carolina. A lot of my life, I wish I had been born in South Carolina. Then I might not have ever went to jail for as long as I have.
I have been in jails all over the US. I’ve been locked up in D.C., Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Atlanta, Georgia, Oklahoma, and West Virginia.
The most time I’ve done was nine years straight. But when I look back over my life I’ve been better than blessed. God has kept me even when I didn’t care anything about myself. And I thank him each and every day.
