Remembering Michael

Shame on me for not doing this on Friday, but I was too busy mourning all over again in the morning and then celebrating at night. The one year anniversary of Michael Jackson’s death is upon us, and the local radio station has been playing his music all weekend, along with those artists who inspired or were inspired by him. I am sad all over again, knowing there wont be any more “sightings”, stories, videos or, more importantly, music, when I’ve spent 30 years obsessing over it. Michael Jackson has truly penned and sang the soundtrack to my life, as every song of his takes me back to some time or place. I still cry when I hear some of them, I still jam when I hear most of them, and I miss his musical presence whenever I hear any of them.

I recall, like it was yesterday, receiving a multitude of text messages while I was in the middle of the produce section of Wegmans. “Are you sitting down?” “Oh girl... You better get home.” “Are you alright?” (thinking I had already heard). Then I overheard a conversation in front of me, which I wrote off as people not knowing what the hell they were talking about. There they go, starting rumors. But it wasn’t a rumor, as I found out when I got in the car and turned on the radio, and the 6-minute drive home seemed like the longest ever.

And now as I sit here OD-ing on MJ documentaries and video marathons, hoping BET will step up and do some better shit to honor him tonight than they did last year, it still doesn’t seem real to me. Im not sure that it ever will, but I do know that as long as there is breath in MY body, Michael Jackson will never be forgotten.