I have a confession to make: Whitney Houston reminds me of my mother.  Well, my mother, if my mom was born African American.  Her aura and her style just reminded me of my mom, ever since the 80’s when I first saw Whitney.  Maybe because they had the same type of energy.  I don’t know.  When I was a kid, I would make that comparison.  How my dad reminded me of John Ridder and how my aunt Lily reminded me of Gina Davis.  I chuck it up to watching too much television as a child, raised on the MTV generation.

Over the years, however, it was disheartening to watch the downward spiral of Whitney’s glorious career and talent.  Being a singer myself, I watched in awe at Whitney during her hay day, but recall the one episode of hers and Bobby Brown’s short lived reality show, how Whitney really didn’t have much love for her career.  It was a job to her, and perhaps, that’s why her voice towards the end, became so far gone.

On Saturday, when I got the new feed that Whitney had passed, I didn’t believe it.  I immediately went to check out the story and realized it was true.  The woman that reminded me of my mother when I was a child was now gone.  Kinda like Wendy Williams, I didn’t watch the Grammys, instead I reevaluated my goals and what I wanted.  I watched some inspirational films and such, but overall, I laid low.  As awesomely talented Whitney was, I wondered, toward the end, was she happy or was she just going through the motions?

A week before Whitney died, her song “You Give Good Love” kept playing in my head.  Strange, because I hadn’t heard it in ages, then suddenly, it popped up.  I tried it in karaoke and recorded it.  I was going by memory, since it had been since the 80’s since I heard it, so please forgive me if it’s not up to my regular quality.  I just thought I’d share.

[soundcloud url=”http://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/35501617″ iframe=”true” /]

Rest in peace, Whitney. God blessed you with a great gift that you were gracious enough to share with all of us while you were here. Thank you for all the joy it brought to everyone who heard you.