Please stop what you are doing and watch this! Funnaaaaaaaaaa
Enjoy
Cree
Entry for July 25, 2007
size=3>
Ugh!!! Cant sleep tonight, so I decided to get on line and blog. Its 6:48 am and I am cramping and so bloated that I could just float up in space somewhere. I\’m hungry but all I could find is peanut butter no jam ( in the tune of Cedric the Entertainer\’s on Kings of Comedy). So I got a spoon and I\’m eating it out of the jar. I remember when we were growing up, me and my sister loved us some peanut butter, mannnnn we use to open the jar, stick our fingers in it and eat our butss off. Then my momma would go to fix us some, and she would say \’who been sneakin in the peanut butter\”? We would be the first to lie. We couldn\’t understand how she knew that somebody had been in the peanut butter. Well duhhhhhh, Im grown now, and I can sure as heck tell when my doublemint gum has only one left, when it should be 3!!! Dang………..we were some dum kids. ROFL!
You know as you get older you start thinking about the ignant things you use to do.I had to be the ignanist, meanest, stupidest early 20ish gurl you had ever seen. I remember one day, I was into it with the gurl downstairs from me. We lived in a 2 family flat, I called all my gurls over, we bought drinks, and everything, plus I had a brand new Fisher Stereo System. Well I told my friends to stomp on the floor, dance, make all the noise you can, cause we was about to run home gurl outta her and her kids mind!!!!!!! Kids too ( aint that ignant?) They did just that, we were drunk and acting a fool. Well she called the police on me, and when they came out it was my friend Micheal Jackson and his partner. When he saw my face, he was like gurl what yall doing? Why did she call the police on you? I told him, and he said \”its some fione women here, is she jealous\”. After they left we went on partying, and then made it known to her, that she had called out MY friends from the Police Station.(AH~HA)
After all my company left, I was tired, drunk, and sleepy. The next day, I woke up and guess who was standing over me? My Landlord, and he\’s a white guy. So I jumped up, vomit all in the bed, on the floor, and all he said was Lacrease, you didn\’t lock you door, and the gurl called me and told me that you were having a party and playing loud music over her head last night. That was all I needed to hear, that partying stuff, I had to hang up. How spooky is it to wake up and your landlord is standing over you? He didn\’t do anything to me, but its the fact of me being so out of my mind, that this would happen.
Thats why this is one of my favorite scriptures in the bible.11When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things .1 Corinthians 13:10-12 (King James Version
Aint that the dogone truth? We do a lot of childish things growing up, if I could change one thing about myself as I reminisce on my mess, it would be to listen more and not run my mouth so heavy. Goodness, I\’m surprised somebody aint knocked my mouth off. Its funny now, because I am so not that. I don\’t bother anyone, don\’t go out, don\’t smoke, don\’t drink all I love to do is go to concerts, plays, movies, take walks, and TRAVEL! If I even go off on somebody I would be sitting up thinking to myself, how am I going to make this right with this/that person. I would be plotting on how I\’m going to make back friends with you. LOL Sometimes I ask God, why am I so friendly, and so nice to people, and when they go off on me. I may or may not go off, but its funny cause we could be in a fight or argument, and as soon as you walk away, if a car comes and hit you, I would be the first one crying, screaming, calling the police, going to the hospital with you and all. I can see myself doing that. Sometimes it bothers me to believe that I could fight you one min and be praying for you in another. Is that normal. Good thing I never had a fight in my life, probaly cant fight. LOL If I could take back every punch I threw I would.
Well, I\’m going to close out for now, you know how you hear a song in your mind, and you cant stop playing it? Well, here is that song, YOU LISTEN TO IT TOO! HAHA
CREE
PEARLS OF WISDOM
July 27-29, 2007
Detroit, Michigan
Entry for July 24, 2007
Hey,
I miss you all. Lots been going on with me. I went to see Anita Baker this past Saturday, and yall know she threw down. She said that its going to be an every year concert, so you know your gurl will be there. This Friday, in a few days my friends from The Tyler Perry Message Board will be in Detroit for a weekend get together for our first meet and greet. We are be staying at The Renisannce Hotel in downtown Detroit and we are going to have a ball!!! We are POW Pearls of Wisdom, so if you are a Tyler Perry fan, you know us from the board. Phyllis from Delaware will be here, Tracy from NJ, \”Cookie\” from Grand Rapids, and my self here in the hosting city of Detroit, Michigan. We are going to have a ball! Cant wait.
Well, my daughter, my only will be moving out soon. She is staying on campus here in Detroit, so thats cool. How do you live alone? I mean I dont have a boyfriend, by choice ( waiting on the Lord) and I wont even know what to do with myself. I go to concerts and movies, I love to travel, but what in the world am I going to do without my bestfriend?? We are very close. People tell me that I should be happy, well I am………………but she never gave me any problems to want her to be gone and on her on, you know? But its cool, better start getting myself a life!!!!! ROFL
Anyway, whats up with you all. Im going to be stopping by your homes to see whats up with yall aiight? I have been to a few. Take care and God Bless You all!
Lacrease
Pearls of Wisdom
Entry for July 01, 2007
Good Sunday Morning!!!
Here I am up again, knowing full well I am sleepy yall. I just had to check in on this lovely Sunday morning. I\’m suppose to go to Church in the morning, but I\’m not going. My Church is starting to spoil me, and no that\’s not a good enough reason not to go. Well, we are on streamingfaith and the services I attend is LIVE on line and even though I\’m not there, it shows so clear without any interruptions. I love it. I sit right here for Live bible study on Wednesday nights, and for the first time this morning, I will watch 9:30 Church services from home. I know I\’m not getting that in the spirit feeling I need, but it sure feels good to still get that \”food\” from where I sit.
I know yall are tired of my job related stories, but something is eating me and I\’m starting to think that its not the customers as much as I think. When I\’m working the counter that use to say 12 items or less, that only has 3 slots to hold groceries, while the others have 8. People no matter how many times I say \”maam you have 3 bags, or sir you have 2 bags. They still walk off without their bags, or leave them all. How do you walk off and leave ALL your bags? But the part that irks me is, they will come back and say \”miss, you forgot to give me my bags\”!! That pisses me off to the 100th power. And I say noooooooooooooo, Miss maam YOUR hands forgot to pick them up after you paid for them. They just gotta blame somebody, if they put the blame of themselves they will learn that they have to be more aware of their things. But when they accuse me of leaving it, they wont examine themselves. And like I told the lady, I\’m here all day for 9 hours, if you blame me, and leave your bags, YOU gotta jump in your car and come back!!! Not me I\’m already here! Stop blaming me!! Then this one black guy came through my line, he was cool tho. He had his discount card, guess he worked at another store, and said here, swipe this. I said, you have a swiper on your side, swipe it. So he says, with his grown butt, the other ladies at the other store do it for me. I said what???????? Do what for you? He said swipe my card, mind you he went on and done it. So I said, well do you have people to read the bible to you, or do you like to read it for yourself, he started cracking up, talking about,NAN NANAN ANANA SEE, THATS A TOTAL DIFFERENT EXAMPLE. ROFLLLLLLLL I was cracking up at him. I said practice getting in the habit of doing things on your own!!! We laughed, but see what I go through daily. Everyday the people of this world are getting spolied. Things are right at our fingertips. We dont have to move a muscle. Well, Imma say this, Im the wrong cashier for all that spoiled mess, they got me messed up. Cause I aint doing all of that baby!!!! LOL This black gurl came through my line tonight and gon say to me, do I have to get my groceries, I said yeah WHO ELSE GON GET EM ( and she paid for them). These people crazy. My coworkers call me Monique personality and all. I dont play, I love to laugh, will make a joke out of the truth, and cool as I dont know what!!!
Now this is where my issue come in at. I told you a few of my stories of today, but I dont know why at this time in my life, people are getting on my nerves so tough. So, let me examine myself.
First of all, my daughters school/college stuff and her moving out is getting my down. I will be glad when she can move in, we can get her settled in, and take care of her personal needs and cares, then I will be able to relax. Second, Im ready to leave Walmart, and work with teens, my life is not going to be right until I do. I love teenagers something terrible, and I need to be helping as many as I can. Third, Im being garnished and its a court order to stop it, and they are killing me in wages. KILLING ME! So when I called these clowns and ask them did they get the same court order paper I GOT IN THE MAIL for them to stop, he was like no, we didn\’t get it. I said you mean to tell me that you didn\’t get the paper, when I said it mean and ruff, he was like O, YOU DIDNT ASK ME IF I SAW IT IN THE COMPUTER. I said THATS THE ONLY QUESTION IM CALLING YOU FOR!!!!!!! Made me mad!!!!! So after he answerd the question, he got mad (whattheheck) he mad for, all he is a assistant?????????? Then I called Walmart to see if they got it, they was like nawwwwww we didn\’t get it. So I sitting here saying to myself, they all the papers to start it, but aint NAAM BODY got none to stop it!!!!! But the lady told me to Fax her over the court papers , and they were going to stop it immediately! So guess yall know Im going to Kinko\’s today!!!!!!! Fourth, I\’m not doing anything I\’m suppose to be doing in life. Its like days are passing my by and I\’m doing nothing, just procrastinating and I\’m so sick about it.
So, when I think about my own issues, I believe that when the customers get on my nerves, that it aint all that bad, its just that I\’m not doing what Im suppose to be doing in my life, so when they piss me off, I\’m really feeling like, I dont need this extra mess in my life. I examine myself by asking these questions. La\’crease, if you were about to get the job of your dreams working with teens, and you had 2 more weeks to work at Walmart, would people bother you as much as you think? The answer is NO!!! I ask myself, if Neishia was in school and settled down, would they bother you as much, and my answer is NO. I ask myself, if the garnishing of your wages stop would they bother you as much? And my answer is No!. That\’s how I have to get myself back in order. I cannot get so up tight, its not going to be like this forever. I have to be humble, take a step back, and be more patient. I love people I really do. So when I go back to work on Monday, Im going to slow it down, and see how things work for my good. Maybe its just me, letting the smallest things about others bother me.
Well, I\’m closing for now, I will be back tomorrow……………….aight?
Cree
Time to roll!!!
Hey,
What\’s going on yall? Me, where do I start! LOL. Never thought I would feel this way, but I am tired of Walmart. I\’ve been there for almost 4 years come Oct 10, and I am so ready to roll up out!!! Its a shame when you and your coworkers get along so good, and it starting to seem like its them ( the managers) against you (employees) the people on the front line. Customers ask us all the time, \”do they treat yall right\”. And up to this point, its always been yeah, they are cool with me. But when you start seeing that the Co-manager wants the Managers job, and since the Co-manager is a man, and the manager is a woman, he is trying to take over. It looks bad, he wants his own store, and hey that\’s fine and cool, but when you start talking to the assistant mangers any ole kinda way in front of the other employees, that\’s not good…….at all. And as for me, ole Joe got one time, to say anything disrespectful or out of order to me, and its going to get ugly. I told my coworkers, everybody jump on their cell phones and start dailing 911.
I always knew that if I ever came to this point of feeling this way, that it would be God\’s way of telling me that its time to move on. For years others saw what I didn\’t in this company. And the sad part about it is, mostly the people that are there are the people who opened the store 6 years ago. They are good people. Honest, sincere, kinda loving people.
In the last 4 years since I\’ve been there, we had 3 managers, and when they came in they wanted a whole new crew. The problem I\’m having is, you cannot fire those people, threatened, mistreat them or talk to them any kind of way. Okay, you want a new crew, but these people was here wayyyyyyyy before you got here, they are the ones who moved the merchandise into this store. Respect the fact that they built this store!!! They came up with these \”in house on the spot rules\” to discourage them, but they are hanging in there. We are not talking about teenagers, we are talking about people who are in their late 30\’s and up. People who love being there, and they do them any kind of way. Its sad. The managers know how hard it is to find a job, so they press you, till you break mentally, they wont quit, but they become bitter and hard to work with, never cracking a smile at all.
Our personal manager Karen is the only one who does the paper work for the whole building, and I know sometimes she gets busy and can\’t help us on the spot. But that aint my problem. Its suppose to be 2 people working in there, but its just her. I like Karen too, because her communication skills are excellent and she does her job. but when she gets behind, she is nothing to mess with, she\’s a Virgo like me, and I can read her but too. And she knows it. So when she is busy, I try not to bother her, especially if I can hold out. Well 2 days ago, she almost pushed Creedog to the limit. I went to her 3 times in a week in a half to get me a locker since we have to wear uniforms now. I don\’t have pockets to carry my car keys and other personal items, so I need a locker. I walks into her office, and says to her \”Karen I need a locker\”. She says well Lacrease, I\’m busy right now, I\’m doing payroll and blah blah blah\”. So I\’m like okay Karen, this is my 4th time coming to you about a locker\’. Wooooooooooe what did I say that for. She starts going on about what she has to do, and that she cant do it right now, and her voice change ( she aint crazy tho) and I\’m looking at her dead in her eyes, and all I could think of is God. I\’m saying to myself \”God you are real\”. If I ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever doubted you in any way, on any day, you are showing yourself real to me. I was sooooooooooo angry at her, that I believe that I had enough strength in me to pop her head off, with only 2 fingers. All I could do is smile to myself, saying WOW there is really a God. Karen has no idea that she was this close to a strangulation, right there in her own office. She has no idea that God is so real that he intercepted my thoughts and made me smile. I started to instantly talk nice to her, and the more calm I was, the calmer she got. As a matter of fact, she was even surprised that she was that angry over all the work she had to do. I knew then when God calmed me down, she saw it in my eyes, and she calmed down. I walked out of the office, not thinking about the locker, but thinking about how good God is. Its deep how upset we can get, and how allow others to push us. But when you let God come into your heart and intercept your thoughts, you feel like a whole nother person.
Yesterday, I walked into her office and went to the the computers to check on my vacation days next month, and she said \” Oh Lacrease, go out there and chose any locker you want\”. So, I\’m like ooooooooo ok, she knew she was wrong yesterday for going off, but since I was calm about the whole thing, she knew she had to make things ri
ght. So I went and picked out a locker and asked her do I go out and buy a lock, she goes……. no, no I have one for you right here, then she says do you have anyone you want to share with? If so just let me know so that I could write their names down. I was like okayyyyyy, cool!!!
See how God will show you yourself, then he will let you learn off that! I\’m glad that I didn\’t show her how I was feeling, imma softy and had I went off on her like I was feeling at that time, I would have felt bad, because she is really a cool, get it done person. So that worked out for the good. Thank you Jesus for showing me who I am……….I love you.
Im sitting up here its 4:30 in the morning knowing doggone well Im sleepy than a mug. Im going to see Anita Baker again July 21. Yall know she my gurl. WEll, Im outta here, talk to you all tomorrow.
Cree
Entry for June 01, 2007
Hey,
What\’s going on ? I miss you all, I know I havent been on here doing anything. You know how you just aint feeling it. Guess thats how I have been. I have been doing good tho, just got some things on my plate. Neisha graduate tomorrow with an Associates in Liberal Arts with Honors- Phi Theta Kappa. Im proud of her, I\’ll post photos next week.
I want to say hey to all my yahoo family. And I will chat with you all later………and read some blog entires.
I Love you all\’
Cree
Song for the week! Detroits Own
LOVE IT OR HATE IT.
YOU RATE IT!
Lacrease
Inside my head!
Hey yall whats up???
I haven’t been blogging much, I was sick with a cold for a coupla weeks. Ugh colds drive me crazy! I hardly ever get sick, but when I do, they break a sis-ta downnnnnnn! LOL Tonight I’m free styling blogging, means I’m writing about any and everything that Im thinking or that has happened all in one email.
First off my job! I am a cashier for Walmart. Did I say Star Cashier ( yeahhhhhh any………….way) They gave me a red vest that stands out, and a few buttons and called me a Star Cashier about 9 months into the job. Well that was cool for that time. But you know what? I really feel in my heart my season there is almost up. First off, Thank God I was called to the office and was told to go part time because of the days I requested off and that days I told them I cant work, they made me part time. I was upset about it at first, because that was how my bills are paid. But as soon as I said Lord, you already know that they had planned to do this to us ( many others too) you must have a way for me. Well, no sooner than the papers being signed. I have been blessed financially like I have never imagine, and now I only work 10-20 hrs a week! LOL And I love it!!!! So now Im sitting here thinking to myself. Ok God are you trying to tell Credog something? Why am I feeling in my spirit that its time for me to move on Lord. I never had this feeling before at Walmart. I love my job, the managers were OK, my coworkers are the BOMB, my car works well and I never have problems getting on time. I havent been wrote up, why since being part time I feel that its more to life than just this? I mean I really want to work with teens, and I want that to be my life!
So let me tell yall what happened. My niece Brittney is 15 and she has this school friend who is in a foster home……….also name Brittney. Well, my sister wanted me to meet her, so they came over and she is the sweetest gurl you could ever meet. Im like what is up with these parents??? This gurl is wonderful. Anyway………that evening she had to be back at the home at 8:00. I rode with my sister and niece to take her back, as we got into the gated community, I was like wow this is where you stay, its nice? I can see myself working here. I mean I was really feeling the atmosphere. So as she got out to get her things, I said let me meet the person who runs this place or the person on duty. She was like oooooooooooooooooo yeah come in. So I goes in with my smile and catchy personality ( lol) introduce myself and they were telling me about how to go bout applying, and who and where to go. When I walked in, I was like yeahhhhhha, this is sooooooooo LACREASE
Now the only reason why I haven’t applied yet, is because its not time. I KNOW that when I do the paper work and get interviewed this job is MINES! But first I have to take my vacation days at my job. I have 2 weeks off PAID and I have friends from on line that is coming to Detroit in July to meet for the first time and I AINT MISSING THAT. I took care all of the plans, and I’m waiting for that day. If I’m working this other job, they are not going to let me take 2 weeks off like that, especially in July and being new. But its cool. I can stick it out. Even if its time to go now, I’ll know. But when God said its time to ROLL, its time to ROLL!
Summer is coming and I plan to be out and about!!! I love going to the Casino, sit at the bar order Strawberry Daquiri’s all night, and watch the Live Entertainment while my sisters feed the machines ( the only thing it eat) MONEY! I wish I would feed them none job having machines!!!!! As soon as my sisters spend up their money, they come over and say……………LOAN ME 20 DOLLAS! LOL We laugh so hard! I talk my junk, but I end up giving it to them anyway, they are good for it. I love my sisters.
Today me and Neisha went to the Detroit Zoo for one of her school projects, we had a good time. There were a lot of kids there with their moms, and as we stop to wa
tch the animals, kids were talking to their mothers saying the darnest thangs. I was cracking up!!! We were watching the monkeys and this little boy said “Mom why is he naked”. LOLLLLLLLLLLL I was hollering in my mind. Yall know monkeys look like people, and since they are hairy, guess the kid felt he needed some clothes on. Then we stop to look at the Lions. They were doing their own thing, they wasnt paying us any attention at all. This little boy kept saying real loud ( and so cute, not mean and out of order) he said: EX CUSSSSSSSSSSSSSE MEEEEEEEEEE. EXCUSSSSSE MEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE. LOL. I guess he was taught to say excuse me when someone is talking, or busy, in order to get their attention. Me and Neisha was cracking up. We are silly anyway.
tch the animals, kids were talking to their mothers saying the darnest thangs. I was cracking up!!! We were watching the monkeys and this little boy said “Mom why is he naked”. LOLLLLLLLLLLL I was hollering in my mind. Yall know monkeys look like people, and since they are hairy, guess the kid felt he needed some clothes on. Then we stop to look at the Lions. They were doing their own thing, they wasnt paying us any attention at all. This little boy kept saying real loud ( and so cute, not mean and out of order) he said: EX CUSSSSSSSSSSSSSE MEEEEEEEEEE. EXCUSSSSSE MEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE. LOL. I guess he was taught to say excuse me when someone is talking, or busy, in order to get their attention. Me and Neisha was cracking up. We are silly anyway.
Then we went to Applebees and threw down. I wanted to go and see Disturbia, but she wanted a nap before school at 7pm. Well I do have 7 more days off! Going to get my nails and brows done tomorrow!!!
YEAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHA. So I will be doing SOLOS, and spending time with neisha, family and friends.
Well I’m out for now. Talk to you all later.
GodlovesCree
My dream
Let me tell yall about this dream I had . Me and my daughter was walking down this block and all of a sudden it started getting dark and spooky. My first reaction was to be scared. But then I remember in the bible about things to come and those who don’t know God wont be able to understand what’s happening. So I remembered the word. My daughter looked at me she knew what time it was too, so I grabbed her hand and said come on Neisha lets get across the street, that’s the only way we are going to be saved! It was like that side was safe, and the side we were on turned into Hell! It looked as if it was lighting, and storming, put it this way…………the end of the world had came.
We had to cross this big street that seem as if it was taking forever to get across. Once we got there, we saw lots of people, some were looking crazy some just was plain lost. So for some reason, I was in charge, I spoke up and said to the people. LOOK, LISTEN EVERYBODY, the world is coming to an end!! I said if you want to live you have to wake up!! In my own mind inside of the dream I knew that I wanted to live, so in order to live I had planned on waking up out of the dream, I just wanted to make sure that they knew what to do, since some of them didn’t know what was going on, I knew that I had a way out. So I said LOOK YALL, WAKE UP. I looked at Neisha and said boo, you wake up first, I couldn’t wake up without her going first. People were waking up because a bubble would burst in the spot that they were standing in. So I said Neisha go head and wake up. I looked at her and then saw a bubble. I told everybody wake up if you want to live, and THEN I BUBBLED OUT. (LOL)
I woke up out of my dream.
I looked around my house, I got up, walked around, and couldn’t stop thinking if those other people woke up. It was on my mind so tough. I couldn’t believe that I had a dream like this. So, I laid down and said I need to go back to this dream to see if those people left. I laid down went back to sleep, and guess what? God let me go BACK to see if those other people were there. I pop back in the dream like a bubble. It was only a few people left. I said WHY DIDNT YALL POP OUT?????????????
They looked at me and said: WE CANT WAKE UP.
I felt so bad for them, so bad. There was no way for me to help them, they had to pop out themselves. All I could say to them was well IM OUT!! Then I woke up out of the dream.
Aint that deep? I’m always thinking about this dream, its one of the few I remember.
I love you all!
Lacrease
A story that will bless you dearly
| Father Knows Blessed | ||||||||
| Black America’s favorite family saw their faith tested last year by the death of their newborn daughter. Here rapper turned reverend Joseph “Run” Simmons and beloved wife Justine talk exclusively to Jeannine Amber about how they want to inspire others on the new season of their hit show. Photography by Mark Mann. | ||||||||
| By Jeannine Amber | ||||||||
When Joseph Simmons and his wife, Justine, agreed to put their lives in front of the cameras on MTV’s Run’s House, the buzz was that this was something different. While other reality shows relied on the zany and at times clearly disturbed behavior of their casts to keep viewers engaged, Run’s House featured five well-adjusted children led by a protective patriarch and a sweet-tempered mother. The show was most notable for what didn’t happen: no temper tantrums, no screaming matches, no catfights. The conflict rarely escalated beyond anything that couldn’t be resolved with a family meeting and prayer. To see such wholesomeness was a novelty. More surprising, this lovefest took place in the home of a rapper, complete with a private pool, an indoor basketball court and a silver Rolls Royce parked out front. For two seasons, Simmons, the former front man of the legendary hip-hop group Run-DMC and now an ordained minister, who was mentored by Bishop Jordan of the Zoe Ministries, lectured, cajoled and hammed it up with his kids while Justine campaigned to have another baby. Midway through season two she became pregnant. It was all so perfect—a new child, just in time for season three! The audience was thrilled right along with the couple, making their show the highest-rated cable program among 12-to-34-year-olds in its time slot. Then, in late September, two days after MTV started filming the program’s third cycle, which begins airing this month, Justine went into premature labor. The baby girl, named Victoria Anne, did not survive. In their grief the couple faced a dilemma: When reality becomes this intimate, this wrenching, do you still keep the cameras rolling? GIRL OF HIS DREAMS It’s late February and Rev Run, as Joseph Simmons is now known, is sitting in the light-filled Zen Room of his five-bedroom home in Saddle River, New Jersey. The room features a waterfall and a floor made of river stones Justine picked out from Home Depot and shellacked herself. But instead of peace and quiet, the room reverberates with the sounds of the couple’s sons playing basketball in the half court on the other side of the wall. Run leans back into the white sofa. “I’m here to do something special besides what I did with Run-DMC,” he says of his life. “I’m here to show the conduct of the Black American family, how we should be. This isn’t arrogance; this is the gift God gave me to give the world.” Run and Justine, who have been married 12 years, first met at a roller skating rink in Roosevelt, Long Island, where Run was performing with Kurtis Blow. That was 25 years ago. After the show, Justine and her three girlfriends asked Run for his autograph. In response he showered them with kisses. “My friends and I ran to the girls’ room and started freaking out we were so excited,” Justine recalls, laughing. At the time, Justine was a beautiful 15-year-old; Run was a year older. He got her number, courted her over the phone, and gave her a prized snapshot of himself in a long black coat holding a basketball trophy. The problem was, he lived in Queens and she lived in Long Island. For teens in love, . that might as well have been across the globe. The distance took its toll, and the relationship fizzled, but Simmons never stopped thinking about the girl from the rink. “Then I became part of Run-DMC,” he says, “and in the ego of my mind I was like, I hope she knows I’m the Don Dada. I hope she recognizes.”
Twelve years after their first meeting, Run got his chance to win Justine back. He was going through a breakup with his then wife, with whom he had his eldest three children, when his cousin Pep, who was working security at a school in Long Island, ran into Justine’s little sister. Pep began bragging, “Run’s my cousin,” the way he often did, to which Justine’s sister replied, “So what? My sister used to go with him.” Pep called Run to confirm, and Run seized the opportunity to reconnect. “I’m thinking, Perfect!” he recalls. “I just needed to lose five, ten pounds before I called her, which I did. The rest is history.” Justine beams while her husband tells this story. “As soon as I heard him say ‘Hi,’ I just melted,” she says. “He sounded so sweet and innocent. I just wanted to take care of him. Then he introduced me to his kids, and, gosh, I just fell in love.” Run says the feelings were mutual. “Justine is so warm and selfless, these kids were running into a daggone hurricane of kisses and hugs and putting on their mittens,” he says. “Nothing against their mother, but with Justine it was just love, love, love, love, love, love.” PRAYING FOR A MIRACLE Justine’s water broke in the early-morning hours of September 26, 2006, one month ahead of schedule. Run called the MTV crew to meet them at the hospital, but when the baby was born, it was clear that something was terribly wrong—her internal organs had developed outside her body. When she died, a little more than an hour later, the crew’s first inclination was to turn off the cameras. “I got a call from the producer in the field and we said, ‘Okay, let’s just give the family some room to grieve and get through this,’ ” says Mike Powers, vice-president of series and production development at MTV. “The next call I got was to let me know that Rev really wanted us to continue. He felt like the show was about his family and he could use this to teach the viewer more than just how to deal with a daughter’s graduation or a son failing his driving test. He could also teach about getting through the unimaginable with grace and the power of faith and family.” Heartbroken, and with the cameras rolling, the couple shared the news with their children that their little sister had died. Diggy, then 11, clasped his mother’s hand and the family prayed. It’s an excruciating moment captured on film. Justine says there was really no other way to do it. “How could we bring you in to enjoy all the fun,” she says, “but then during bad times say, ‘This is pr What the episode doesn’t reveal, and what may be the greatest testament to the couple’s faith, is that during Justine’s fourth month of pregnancy, they had been warned that something might be wrong with their unborn daughter. When Justine’s doctor told her he detected a problem with the way the baby was developing, the couple traveled from their home in New Jersey to Long Island to seek the opinion of the obstetrician who had delivered their youngest sons. But he too gave them a grim prognosis. It was news the couple refused to accept. “We heard the doctors’ reports, and then we heard God’s report in our minds,” says Run. “We are real saved, sanctified, crazy church people. God can do a job! That is the type of believers we are. Yes, it hurt some nights. I cried some nights, worried and wondered some nights. But don’t tell me God can’t make this right!” Resolved in their faith, the couple told no one the news except their bishop, feeling that would only invite sadness into the house. “I didn’t need sad,” Justine says now. “I needed to know that my miracle was going to happen, that the baby was going to be fine. That’s what got me through. I was carrying a prayer.” Justine was so convinced that the baby was going to be okay that when she was met at her local New Jersey hospital by staff who had never treated her before (she couldn’t get to her regular doctor in Long Island when her labor began), she never mentioned that there might be a problem with the pregnancy. “I didn’t say anything,” she says, “because I was still hoping for my miracle.” HOW FAITH HEALS Upstairs in the Simmonses’ home is a pink-and-white room decked out with gifts from Justine’s baby shower. There’s a bassinet, a crib and an armoire filled with tiny pink dresses. “Aren’t these cute?” says Justine, fingering the fringe on a pair of toddler sweaters. The nursery remains intact as a way of looking forward to the child they plan to adopt. “I always wanted to adopt, but every time I mentioned it my husband would say, ‘Why not have your own baby?’ ” recalls Justine. “We take for granted that we can just have a baby. But I couldn’t. Maybe part of the reason God let this happen is because He wanted us to adopt.”
Justine’s face lights up when she speaks about the baby girl she has yet to meet and about how thankful she is for the children she already has. But when her husband leaves the room to see about ordering food for the kids, she grows somber, talking quietly about the hour Victoria Anne survived. “I got to hold her,” she says. “They dressed her in pink. She was so beautiful, and she had this amazing little clear sac with all her organs inside.” Tears well up in her eyes. In an instant she is transformed from a woman planning her future to a mother carrying the unbearable weight of losing a child. Then Run returns. As he enters the room he eyes his wife wiping tears from her cheeks. “This is what I wanted to avoid,” he says. “The Bible says ‘Look forward.’ Why experience these feelings when you are just going to have to carry them throughout the day?” “I’m not going to carry it,” his wife protests. “I’m fine.” “It’s like opening wounds,” Run says, turning his attention to the reporter. “There’s no healing in crying about it. There is no healing in her feeling that pain over and over. There is no healing in showing your weakness when you are in the public eye.” The way Run sees it, his family’s darkest days are an opportunity to show others the power of faith. “That’s what he does,” explains his brother, Russell Simmons, coexecutive producer of Run’s House, from his office in Manhattan. “He’s a reverend, his podium is MTV, and he preaches by example. Rev Run is just doing his job.” It’s the only approach that makes sense to Run and Justine. “People are inspired by champions,” Run says, his voice rising with conviction. “I’m not going to be an inspiration by asking over and over, Why? There’s no answer to why. The only answer is to show people you can be strong and courageous, because if Rev Run and Justine can go through this and still stand in faith, you can do it, too.” Jeannine Amber is the senior writer for ESSENCE.
|
Inside the mind of cree 
