Friday night, leading into Saturday, I was well on my way to making a terrible decision.

My uncle’s friend, a neighborhood friend turned family, passed away February 13, and I told myself over and over that I was not attending the funeral. I felt that my obligation was to my store and that my customers were depending on me to run a reliable and reputable company, and that meant being there from 10 a.m- 9 p.m. Friday night, while at my parent’s house, I said it out loud while having a conversation with my dad. It went something like this:

Dad: “Are you going to the funeral”

Me: “No, I have to go to the store”

Dad: “You need to pay your respects. That’s not right. He watched you grow up. Your…”

Me: (Not wanting to argue) “Ok Daddy that’s dead. I’ll go. Say no more”

And that’s when that bad decision turned into a good decision. You see, I needed to be at that funeral yesterday and hear those words. There was one man in particular who stood up to pay tribute to our now deceased friend, his words resonated with me. When concluding his speech he said, “God will use anything to make you hear him” And I’ve been hearing him a lot lately. In the most unfavorable and inopportune situations in my life, God has truly been speaking to me. It’s actually in our most trying times that we hear God speak to us because we’re more vulnerable and vulnerability is the most receptive stage. As adults, we have so much going on in our personal lives that we neglect the people that are most important to us. We have to learn how to find a balance; climb that corporate ladder and have a play date with your friends!

I cried my eyes out at the funeral but I also laughed a lot at the same time. I cried thinking about the fact that his son lost his dad. I know the value of a good father ( I can’t imagine my life without mine). And this little boy had a great father. Of course it made me think about Masyn. One of the greatest lines from Black Panther was “A father that has failed to prepare his child for his death, is a father that has failed his child” And that goes for mothers too! In just the short six months that Masyn has been living, I’ve been doing all I can to ensure his well-being… prepaid college plans, health insurance, life insurance, investments, you name it.

It’s crazy, I didn’t intend for this blog post to be based on such a solemn topic, but just like I said on one of my previous posts, we need more real. And death is very real. Although it’s a topic we hate to talk about, we have to, to make sure our loved ones are prepared for our death. I knew that I also had a bridal brunch to attend on the same day and I was amped up to talk about the brunch on the blog. But as a blogger, we shouldn’t just showcase those glamorous events, we should highlight the horrible moments in life too. Below I’ve shared the details of Saturday’s outfit. I actually wore this outfit two years ago while in NY, but this time I wore it with a trench instead of a fur coat because the temperature was much warmer. The top has much detail so pairing it with a solid color pair of pants was pertinent. The silk fabric of the pants gave the look a more expensive look. I like that the pants were high-waist so they could hold the top in place when tucked.

OUTFIT DETAILS:

EMBELLISH-BEADED TOP (sold out): Forever 21- similar here and here, SILK CHAMPAGNE PANTS (sold out): Forever 21- similar here, here and here, NUDE TRENCH COAT (sold out): H&M- similar here and here.