Mozel Zeke Nealy – Presente! 6

There ae those mornings gray or sun stroked skies when you wake and realize your world is in a different orbit. Things have changes and they will never again be quite as they were. There are new spaces revealed, new gullies to tumble into, and the roads you travel have become a bit rougher.

Yesterday, after 46 years of knowing, twelve as lovers, (common-law) married folk, and young artists, eight rough years of separation and dysfunction, and the remaining of becoming friends who no longer lived with one another, but had become grandparents, mature artists, and friends bound by our history and mutual love of family and community and our people, after forty-six years of our knowing Mozel Zeke Nealy has unexpectedly died at the age of seventy-three. 

Our two children, his youngest and oldest grandchild, loving daughter-in-law and gentle wife were at his side as he began to crossover.  He was and is loved and will be missed.  He was an estimable drummer and small instrument maker, painter, and poet. He cherished his family and friends and did not take them for granted. He revered the music, especially Haitian drumming, and delivered it rhymical magic with respect for the culture and humility towards the art. He painted with abandon and wrote poems that revealed his anger towards injustice and his love for his wife and family. I encourage you to go to his website and see his paintings, go to his Facebook page read about some of his passions, listen to the few recordings that there are of his drumming.  And then call someone you love and let them know again how important they are to you, and blessed you are to be a part of their life, how much they are valued.  It may make you feel a bit better if they are taken from you or simply slip away. You will at least be able to rest in knowing that you shined the light on your friendship while they lived. I think that is making it easier for me although, at the moment, I am yet cascades of tears.