That is the very first thing I’m writing after my Mother died at 1 AM on Sept. nineteenth. Someplace round 8 or 9 pm the evening ahead of, I placed on Cushy Kill‘s Top rate Drifter. As I used to be paying attention to it, I knew my mother used to be going to go away the planet quickly. Because the track “True Lies,” performed within the background, I may just listen my mom’s voice talk to me and say good-bye.
I’m now not stunned that she would be in contact thru song, as a result of she used to be a HUGE song fan and a complete weirdo. In 1975, she become the primary Black waitress at Hollywood’s most famed nightclub, the Whiskey A Pass Pass at the Sundown Strip.
On nights when she couldn’t discover a babysitter, she would take me to paintings on the Whiskey, the place I’d grasp courtroom with the who’s who of the technology whilst consuming five-year-old me’s drink of selection, a Shirley Temple with further cherries.
I informed my spouse at the evening of the 18th that I knew my mom used to be going to cross away quickly. I appeared out of our window on the midnight sky paying attention to Top rate Drifter. My mom used to be like no different, and all the time sought after me to change into who I sought after to change into, now not who she concept I will have to be. I’ve such a lot of stunning recollections of my mom, Saundra Jean Leonard, and from nowadays I make the promise to have a good time her in all that I do!
To everybody in Cushy Kill, I wish to say thanks for developing song that hits like no different. At the morning of the nineteenth, once I came upon about my mother’s passing, the primary file placed on used to be Top rate Drifter. It’s a file that’s going to get me thru my grief.
Mother, your lifestyles used to be a film, and I’m so satisfied I used to be part of it. Thanks so such a lot for having the imaginative and prescient to transport us to Venice Seaside in 1976. I can all the time love you my OG Queen!
Photograph by means of @alancortest
