Day 18: Gems
My mother wasn’t the first loss of child my Granny suffered. My uncle, Marvin McQuitty Jr., was the first to give her her title of, Vilomah. In honesty and truth I did not know him and wasn’t given the time to. He departed from us when I was in High School and long before that his calling required him to relocate him and his family to Houston. As a man of honor and humility, we knew he was famous but not just how famous he was. My uncle was a legendary drummer in the Gospel Music Industry. But the man had RANGE. He played with Fred Hammond, Israel & New Breed, Kirk Franklin and Mary Mary but also worked with Artists like Stevie Wonder, Jessica Simpson and Destiny's Child. At his memorial service an even more extensive list of collaboratives were named, we were all shocked. I couldn’t wrap my head around why he practically hid his fame from the world. But now as an adult I get it. He didn’t matter. It wasn’t about him. It was all for HIM.
My adjustment period after my relocation was ruff. Lonely, grieved, uninspired, purely existing. The Holidays were particularly unsettling with Covid breaking my families longest standing tradition, “Christmas Eve with Granny”. I had gotten to a point where I was sick of the music in my library and uninterested in going on a hunt for more. I was at my Auntie Desiree’s house, quarantined, and this melody from deep within my archives starts to play for me. And it was as if my heart called out to the song. “Let me praise you now”. My uncle recorded that song with Fred hammond and Radical for Christ, for the “Purpose by Design” album back in 2000. I hadn’t heard it in so long it was like a memory of a memory. But as soon as I played it, I was transported. I was 4 again, riding in the back seat on the way to church. I can see my mom in the passenger seat, wearing white, my dad in the drivers seat in front of me. Sunday morning perfume and cologne lingering. But it’s mixed with the smell of the industrial park below the elevated part of I-75 as you exit Detroit and enter Ecorse. It was just what I needed and brought about the most refreshing outpour. Not just the sweetness of the nostalgia but the song itself was what I needed.
An Excerpt:
For His counsel is sure
His joy will help us to endure
Each and every trial and pain
So before fear takes its part
Let's hide the Word deep in our heart
And if ever we feel dismayed just remind yourself - (Let me praise You now)
Lord we praise your name because you are who you are- (Let me praise You now)
We lift your name above the heavens high- (Let me praise You now)
Lord we glorify you and we know this by far
There's no way we could hide from your all- seeing eye
Drums are the heartbeat of a song. If you take them away, the song dies a little. Listening in a state of praise —you can feel the love my uncle had for his God. I listen closely to decipher the messages between them. I think about their conversations being had today and ponder how his music sounds now that proximity isn’t a factor.
Although was it ever really?...
The entire album has been on repeat for me since the start of the year. It’s acted as a healing balm for me. I think about my cousins, Marielle and Simone, his daughters. How they relate to the music. I wonder if the listening experience is nostalgic, cathartic, grief inducing or healing — or does it hang somewhere in the balance. I saw that Mari was a “friend who listened” on apple music. It made me smile. When I dance to it, I dance for where God has brought me in my life but also for what my uncle was brought through. His illness was complicated beyond medical understand. He and my mother both suffered greatly —so I rejoice. No more pain for them. No more.
Theres such a gratefulness in the rhythm, he must have been thanking God for his girls as he played. And although he could not have foretold the time of his passing, truly we were all left with an inheritance of treasures.
Kiss my mommy for me, Unc.
