Today is my brother’s 39th birthday! Kenya loved lots of things. Music, church, time, good food but more than anything, he loved his birthday. Now he loved his family too, my mama was his “Dear dear”…but that birthday?…yeah he’d beat you down about his birthday if he had to. As soon as the new year arrived, he’d remind anyone, “My birthday May 16th….” And he’d never…EVER let you forget…that he was a grown man…lol
Now…my sister is his favorite sister. He would call me sometimes and instead of a hello, I’d get, “YoutalktoKiki?” or “Youtalktoyasista?” I’d remind him that he hadn’t even said hello to me and he’d give me his famous…”oh…I’m sorry….” then…”You talktoyasista?”
I’m the big sister, the one who made him an uncle. For whatever reason, he gave me the nickname Jelly Roll when I came to spend one summer at home to work the summer program my mom runs. I asked why he called me that. He said…”cause you look like a jelly roll!” I said, “Kenya! That’s not nice, I don’t look like a jelly roll! That’s food!” I proceeded to show him some google photos of jelly rolls. I said, “see, these are jelly rolls. Do I look like that? These are not even people!” He said, “yup, that looks just like you!” and he giggled and walked away. My daughter, he called Billy Goat. He never would tell us why though, but he delighted in calling her that. Since I had a nickname, I gave him one…it was Fatboy. He thought it was funny and we clowned each other with those names. I finally figured out that the reason he didn’t give my sister a name was because she already HAD a nickname. Ohhh!
That same summer, he made me feel like a rock star because he said…”You cook well!” Now if Kenya complimented my cooking, then I KNEW I was doing something right.
Kenya and I shared a love of music. He could be found any evening giving a concert to a private audience in his room. He had his speaker, his microphone and his CDs and that was all the audience he wanted. If you wanted to listen, you had to wait outside the door because if you walked in that room, he would pause the music and say, “Wassup?”…like…”What do you want…I’m in the middle of something…” lol….Once, when I was home from college, we were riding in my mom’s car and I was listening to one of my favorite artists at the time…Alanis Morissette’s Ironic on the radio. I was singing along like I always do in the car, and it got to the chorus, and to my surprise, he chimed in singing and was doing the famous headbanger move….It was hilarious and couldn’t have been more perfect if we’d planned it that way.
One of my favorite things about Kenya is that he constantly reminded you of the time. Personally, I hate being late and get irritated when others are. If I said…”come on y’all it’s almost 9, we gotta go!” Kenya would say…”I got 8:56″. Basically….almost doesn’t count. Once, at my aunt’s house he’d reset her clocks. They were all 15 minutes fast. My aunt quickly blamed one of my younger cousins because she just KNEW he knew how to do it. Kenya was never a suspect because unfortunately, no one thought he knew how to do it. After my aunt fussed and fussed at my cousin who continued to swear he didn’t change the clock, she stormed back upstairs. Next to me…he said in a low voice…”clock had the wrong time…had to fix it…” I roared laughing because the whole time she fussed…he’d never said a word…
Aside from all that…my favorite thing about my brother is that he liked to have a good time. Whether that was at church, at home, at a restaurant or on a holiday or vacation…whenever…wherever, Kenya knew how to celebrate. He quite enjoyed life and when he was in party mode, you couldn’t help but enjoy yourself too.
People always say rest in peace or rest in heaven when someone is no longer with us. I’ve always thought heaven to be a place of singing and celebration…isn’t that what they always say? The heavenly choirs of angels will be singing praises all day long? Well in that case I KNOW there’s a party going on right now. He’s singing in that big ole choir and having him a good ole time…doing what he loved. I’m glad I got to be his big sister, even though I wasn’t his favorite. I’ll forever be Jelly Roll (though he’s the only one who can call me that…) and he’ll forever be my Fatboy…It’s our first birthday without him. I know we would’ve been here celebrating…going to your favorite places and doing whatever your favorite sister had planned…(well…aside from the whole shelter in place thing…)
Happy birthday Fatboy! Party in Heaven!
Hakuna Matata,
Jelly Roll
Kimyatta Writes 