Won’t You Tell Her For Me? I’m Keepin’ a Light.
The new year got off to a sour note for any R&B soul lover and fan of Natalie Cole as, the legendary singer brought in the new year having said “I love you” to and being survived by her two sisters-twins: Tomolin Cole, and Casey Cole, 54.
Due to illness, after several canceled December 2015 and one upcoming (February 2016), Natalie, 65, succumbed to congestive heart failure on December 31, 2015.
I will never forget being a little girl stalking my mother’s album crates and stumbling across this watercolor painting of this beautiful black woman in this “orange fancy dress.” It had me stunned and loving her even more when I learned “Our Love” and “Keeping a Light” were the songs sang by that woman with the artistic album cover that had a (literal) texture like no one else’s album cover did. (I can feel it in my fingers from my mind’s memory as I write this. I remember SO clearly…me feeling around the album like I was blind). I was obsessed with that album so much so that my mother went out personally bought me one because I was couldn’t stop reading the credits and lyrics imprinted-I wanted to know everything about this art and this singing woman that my mom played all the time. I rehearsed singing those two songs from that album so much. I totally taught myself just “how” to sing by studying (three other singers) but shuffled to the front-the beautiful black woman with the texture a dull (rather than shiny) painting for an album cover and the textured, but shiny and sparkling voice: Natalie Cole.
With having lost my mother in 2014 and the memories of it all (my mother’s friend’s and her constantly having tiny ole me stand on the living room table singing “Our Love”) is a tear-jerking staple and reminder of my memories of Natalie Cole and my mom that I can never forget. I was just a baby. I hit every note perfectly. And you couldn’t tell me n.o.t.h.i.n.g at (3:58-end song) : ♫ “We got a mighty mighty good love uuuuuuvvv uvvvv. Oooh that’s right. Bring it down. Just a little. ‘Cause love is soft. Love is sweet. Love is nice. Love is gentle. Love is joy. Love is pain. Love is laughing in the rain. Iiii got love. On my mind. Love is always right on time. Love is you. Love is me. Iiiiiiiii got love. On my mind. Love is always right on time. LOVE is you. Love is me. Love is gonna…set youuuuuuuu freeeeeeeeheeeeeeeeee heeeeee heeee yeah. Oh. Yeah yeah yeah yeah ooh (ooh) ooo (ooh)..” ♫
Although Natalie Cole certainly left us all much too soon, the fact of the matter is: She lived a full, and rewarding life and too, triumphed over some admittedly tough times. Unlike many, Natalie Cole lived a tragic and triumphant storybook movie life while living and (in 2000), was here to oversee her biopic (without the bickering back and forth arguments between loved ones being upset about how she was represented and presented). Natalie Cole (perfectly represented by beautiful actress Theresa Randall), presented herself while she narrated and oversaw the entire biopic from start to finish.
https://youtu.be/66j4yzV6gSo
Very few people are able to have lived, lost, loved and triumphed and live to tell such a compelling tragic story that ended in life, rather than the death (that even she expected):
“Natalie Cole dies in Hotel Fire-Freebasing Cocaine” the executive producer narrated as the biopic opened-starting with a Las Vegas hotel fire she almost died in while pulling out her drug paraphernalia and getting high: insisting that if she was going do die, it would be while getting high. That’s how much she loved what she was doing about as much as the world loved what she was doing on stages the world over.
I’m like the poster child for going through a lot of sh/t and coming up smelling of roses.
Loving what she was doing however, didn’t quite love her back as, in 2007, Natalie Cole was diagnosed with Hepatitis C and received a kidney transplant in 2009. Cutting no corners and making no excuses-ever-Natalie Cole blames her “self-destructive” years of drug abuse.
I was shocked when the doctor told me. I couldn’t have imagined the aftermath of doing drugs 30 years earlier would come back with such a vengeance. The medication I had to take was a form of chemotherapy. You feel like death every day. No appetite. No energy. But the treatment worked. It cured my liver 80 per cent, but compromised my kidneys.
Via a nurse (Esther) took care of her when she was sick and after watching
