His Legacy... R.I.P Wali "Wic" Clanton

This piece, this fictional story is dedicated to my little cousin Wali “Wic” Clanton who was killed last night, for now I know how it feels to have someone ripped from you when you were just looking forward to seeing their growth, and watching how beautiful their story turned out to be. Unfortunately the chance was taken from you Wic, but I love you forever and always, and just as I inspired you, your life has inspired me. So this is for you and all the other Wic's around the world who will never get to live their story, and for the girlfriends, wives, and mothers who won’t ever get to see their loved ones live out their story.

                                                              Legacy: A Short Story by Everlecia Taylor 

His appearance would give you different impression of the boy I'm about to describe, his ostentatious ways made many assume that he was up to no good. Whenever he hung with his friends his expression was always unfriendly, he was a hard shell with them but I felt lucky to be the only one to crack that shell. With me he felt safe to reveal his true gentleness, because growing up where he grew up such a thing was considered a weakness. I got to see every side of him, and this is what made me like a moth to his flame.

In relationships girls usually are the talkers but not in our relationship, he was the talker. He was great communicator and never cease to express his feelings, he was special and I clung on to every word he said. To me he was also something like a story teller as he talked about the life we would one day have together.  After graduation we were both moving to Atlanta, which was only four hours away from home so whenever we missed everyone we would make a trip to see the family. Once in Atlanta I would go to clark on scholarships that he and I both searched high and low for and he would go to the community college while starting his first company selling bowties. I knew that it didn't matter what he sold because he had confidence and ambitious that I knew—I believed he would succeed in whatever he pursued.

After college we would get married, and then two years down the road I would have his first child—his legacy. If it was a girl her name would be Ashley, after his grandmother and if it were a boy it could be anything that wasn't his name, Dash. His intentions were to break a family curse by not naming his son after he and his father. His father was rarely there but his lack of presence made him more aware of how he wanted to be when his time to be a father came. His awareness made him the most self-aware person I knew.

Only once did I allow a friend to say he was no good for me, when she and everyone around us never gave him a chance.. They had prematurely ruled him out because of his dread locks and nose piercing but he was smart, and he taught me more than I could ever teach him. He taught me how to love myself, before I could love anyone else as he was a prime of example of what that looked like, and most of all he taught me that no matter where we come from we can choose to think differently and rise above any stereotype if we seek knowledge. On top of his wisdoms, his soul was even more beautiful, on how he cared almost to a fault for everyone around him including me and I got to witness that, and for me that is his legacy that I will carry with me. 

As I stand here before you today, giving an eulogy for the only boy I’ve ever loved, I finally have to admit that we won’t to get live out our story together but he will forever be in my heart. In my memories of him I won’t think about the bullets that pierced his heart in his last hours here on earth, but I will think about the little things, like the time he brought me flowers, our first kiss, our 5 hour conversations, and the way he revealed his true self to me. Now being here without him I will continue to live out our story, and move on only knowing that he's my new guardian angel, and that I have to live in his light.