Bobby DeBarge Imagines vol.2

Forever

Waking up today was a warm yet beautiful day. Birds chirping from the early hours chirped just outside my window.

We all got ready and dressed in black outfits. My boys now 21 and my little girl turning 19 in a few months... Today would be a memorable day I never saw coming or imagined ever happening.

The family comforted Teri the way they once had comforted me years ago during some trials & tribulations in me & Bobby's relationship. The cousins mainly comforted the kids as did the rest of the family and close friends who shared stories of their father.

A few hours later we were gathered as one, mourning the passing of a son, a brother, a cousin, a father, a uncle, a nephew, a friend and a husband.

The world had lost the late great Bobby DeBarge and at his funeral we were on August 21nd 1995.

Knowing Bobby he wouldn't want us to cry on this day but it was so hard. So many memories, good & bad all resurfaced at this very moment. The love of my life was laying in a casket before my very own eyes. And with him went a piece of me.

Before his lifeless frame stood his widow and their kids, my kids and me at the very last moment taking the last looks at his unfortunately deteriorated face. Nothing could ever hurt more than what was seen and felt.

My lover, my bestfriend who once kept me on my feet and protected me from the world wasn't here to protect me from the most agonising times.

We shared mutual interests such as the love for music and adventure. Neither of us ever daring to judge one another. We'd share even the deepest darkest secrets. It felt as if we were made for each  other.

He'd asked me on a date one day after mustering up the courage 3 days after we met which was on August 26th 1972. And the first week he told me to meet him at the lake after school and he read me a sweet poem he had written me then put a pretty white ring on my finger.

The following week would be sealed up by our first kiss that had everyone in school talking. We often talked about building a future life together. He also introduced me to his family which I did too.

He loved spending time with me specially alone. I remember at school, he'd be playing the piano first thing in the mornings. We'd often sing or turn songs into duets and play the piano together.

We'd also spend an awful lot of time together, when he didn't have rehearsals that is. We'd hangout under the school bleachers or sit by the swings at the park holding hands while talking about anything and everything. Or we'd just regularly spend time together at his house.

He'd get me to try his delicious cooking, Sea food in particular was his favourite. I've never seen nobody who competitively underwent almost a whole week only eating seafood to prove his love for it.

Oftentimes we'd go to a neighbour's house down the street and I'd sit there watching as he played the piano effortlessly, other times he'd try to teach me but I'd mess up on purpose and play it my way, since I really wasn't trying to decipher every note. This, however, didn't go unnoticed by Bobby who'd passive aggressively tell me it's not right or he'd smack my hands instead.

Furthermore we were young, and related to each other in certain ways that brought us closer. You could just about say joint at the hip. I grew closer to his family too.

His generous & fun loving sister Bunny who I looked up to and his brother Tommy whom I grew to adore, the sweet yet rebellious Randy, the defensive comedian Marty who loved to roast strangers and call them 'bench' in substitute to bitch.

The soft spoken little El who seemed to have a significantly close relationship with Bobby, little James who Bobby wasn't fond of me having a relationship with but nonetheless became like my little son.