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Tina Turner Gave Me The Best

Then and for always

The legendary singer and spectacular performer Tina Turner has passed away. I got the news while checking my Twitter feed after a minibreak. I sat there stunned and incredibly sad that the reigning Queen of Rock n’ Roll, who had helped define my early years, was now flying high.

She was one of those superstars that you assumed possessed the ability to stay immortal. A world without her doesn’t make any sense. And for the lives she indelibly touched — including mine — her unexpected departure provides the opportunity to unearth sweet memories that continue to govern us.

Turner died of natural causes at the dignified age of 83, and based on the testimonies from those closest to her who witnessed her last days — the first Black woman to grace the cover of Rolling Stone magazine was ready to bow out gracefully for the final time. After weathering a series of health setbacks, including failing kidneys and intestinal cancer, Turner had spent her last years bravely preparing for the inevitable.

And now that she’s joined the iconic ancestral realm, leaving behind a vast devastation of broken hearts in her wake — we have to contend with one of life’s brutal zingers.

I’ve officially reached the phase when getting older takes on a more personal meaning. Your mortality…