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I also just wanted to let you have a moment to tell me your feelings about your brother’s passing and your reaction.

“Well, I was very – when something like that happens with anyone, it takes you by surprise, in as much as you don’t expect it. Death is like a sting, and is something that you never get over with. But I knew he had a problem, and as a result of all that I was very much concerned. Our family had been involved in several interventions, trying to help as much as possible. And of course, he was always in denial. But then also, I know there are other underlying reasons as to when he passed – why it happened – which I can’t go into because it’s being thoroughly investigated.

“But I do know that it was the most horrible experience I’ve ever, ever, ever had in my life. And it was very difficult and it still is, because for each and every day you get up, I didn’t know how to put one foot in front of the other one. I mean, I just couldn’t function. And even last night, since you asked me this question, I woke up I think around 3 in the morning. And I keep my TV on sometimes on the music channel – Soundscape easy listening music – and I just started thinking about him and I couldn’t stop. So it hurts.

“But you know, I feel that I’m looking forward to a time when hopefully I’ll be able to see him again. Because we believe in the fact that there’s a hope of a resurrection in which people will have the opportunity to live on the Earth. And that’s left in the creator’s hands.

“So I tell you, it’s not the easiest thing in the world, though. It’s very difficult. And what makes it hard is whenever you step in the food market, whenever you go into a department store, you’re on the elevator, or whenever you turn on the radio or television, you’re hearing his music everywhere. And you can’t escape from it. And at one point, I couldn’t stand to listen to the music because it reminded me. But now it’s different, which is one of the reasons why I’m not having as much of a problem performing now, because I’m looking at it from a totally different perspective now.”

“The thing about it – no matter who it is, they’re dear to you, whether they’re public or not. I mean, that’s your family. And that’s when I try to take that public part out of it in thinking about it. It’s family, and when you lose a family member, that hurts. And that’s what the public has to realize – it’s not always about his accomplishments and all that. He was my brother. I used to walk Michael to school, and I used to walk him to my grandmother’s house when he was a little bitty kid because my grandmother babysat him, and she lived a long ways away, and then I would go to a school that was close to her area. I was one of the ones that helped raise him [Laughs]. And I think of that more than anything growing up. And all the little things that happened – the personality traits and how we interacted with one another. And that’s what I always think of – he was my brother. And that’s what hurts most of all.”

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Tagged as: Jackson Rebbie

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