Whitney Elizabeth Houston (August 9, 1963 – February 11, 2012)

Yesterday after a long day out running my typical Saturday errands, I decided to spend some time relaxing online.

I checked in to one of my social forums and followed up on a few threads I was participating in earlier that morning before leaving the house.

It wasn’t until maybe an hour later (by then it was 10PM EST) that I did a refresh on the computer pages that I had left earlier that morning, only to find that most of the latest posts had the name Whitney Houston in the title. I assumed this was more revelation about her antics at one of the Grammy week parties she had attended on Thursday — but wait I saw one thread entitled ‘Whitney Houston dead?”

Of course I knew this was probably just another “Twitter death Hoax,” but something compelled me to open the thread. By page 10 I knew this was real.

I sat stunned. My heart dropped. Another part of my young adult years gone just like that!

It seemed like a dream. But now it is another day and I woke up to the reality that the Princess of Pop is gone.

My most vivid musical memory of Whitney is the day that I discovered her voice. It was within days of her first LP coming out in 1985, and I was spending a sunday afternoon out with my then boyfriend and friends. When we arrived at the friend’s house Whitney’s first album was playing over and over again on the turntable and we all just loved it. Every song was perfection and we all sat around reading the liner notes and passing around the album cover to stare at this singer who had seemingly come out of no where to blow us away. I was a fan of her music from that day on.

R.I.P Whitney Elizabeth Houston. We loved you. We thank You.

My condolences to Cissy Houston and all of Whitney’s immediate family and friends. My prayers are especially with Bobby Kristina. I don’t think one ever gets over losing a mother: the pain just lessens a little with the passing of time.