A Dedication...

I recieved a frantic 1:30 a.m. call Friday from my sister. I was knocked out but I of course answered because she didn't usually call me so late.

She informed me that she had been in a movie that night and when she got out her phone was bombarded with calls, voicemails, and texts. She told me that our cousin had died in Brooklyn that night.

Ajile Turner was only 38. It was until today that I got the full story of what happened that night in Brooklyn but I was told that he had been in a motorcycle accident.

I was shocked. We got off the phone abruptly because she was going to call a cab to take her from Harlem over to his apartment because she could not reach anyone.

I certainly couldn't go back to sleep. My mind went back to the last time I was in Brooklyn which was this summer. He was around in I believe Prospect Park (there are two big parks over there, one had a big concert going on and the other was just a major hangout spot) and we were over at Habana enjoying burritos and corn. There were guys on bikes everywhere but unfortunately I didn't get to see him.

The last time I saw Ajile was at Habana Cafe (my first time there) just after he purchased the bike that would eventually kill him. It was a big secret, he warned me not to tell my mother because he wasn't ready for his to know. It was the first time I'd seen him since maybe high school. I hardly remember him going back to Cincinnati for anything and he was constantly travelling to Hawaii to surf (something he loved) or somewhere in the winter to snowboard (his new love).

That last time I saw him I saw him smiling, surrounded by so many people who were also touched by him. It seemed as though everybody there knew him. I remember Malik Yoba was there and when I stepped outside the gate my cousin was there chatting with him and he wasted no time introducing me, his little cousin, to Malik and everybody else standing around. Mos Def came through as well and made sure he gave a nod to Ajlie as well. I looked at him that day and I thought he was just so cool. Yeah he was the cousin of rapper Common, but all that seemed trivial to me. Rashid is like a cousin to me as well, not some big shot rapper. Ajile knew real celebs, lol.

Even though I didn't see Ajile much, I don't remember a time in my life that I didn't know him. I should add that we are not cousins by blood or marriage but simply by the fact that our mothers were once great friends, his mother was almost a mother to me. For my sister, he was a best friend. A relative in New York whom she could always call on and who she would always be there for.

This post is for Ajile who I believe was taken too soon. My thoughts and prayers are with the rest of his family and all of his friends who are mourning the loss of an amazing person.