RIP Marvin and Aaliyah

Lost in the many commemorations of the 9/11 attacks was the 10th anniversary of the tragic death of Aaliyah in a plane crash. On August 26, one of the radio stations was playing a marathon of her songs as a tribute. It reminded me of something that happened two or three years ago when my son was ten or eleven.

He's always been very sensitive to evil and wickedness, and gets very disturbed when people hurt each other, especially when he was at that age. I used to turn the station when the news would come on, because invariably, something would come on that would upset him, whether it was a story about a child being abused or some robbery turned deadly. On this particular day, Aaliyah's remake of "Got to Give It Up" was playing on the radio, and his ears perked up to it. "Hey," he said, "that's a Marvin Gaye song!" (Even at that age, he had a pretty extensive education in good music.) I told him it was a remake, that it was Aaliyah singing it, and he asked if Marvin minded that she was singing it. I didn't think anything bad would come of it, so I said, "Well, since he's dead, he doesn't mind much."

Then he asked how Marvin died.

Knowing I had to be careful here, I said, "He died when I was about your age," which was a terrible attempt at redirection, because he only asked again. "He got shot," I said, trying to put some finality into my voice.

"Why would somebody do that? Did they ever catch the guy who shot him?" he asked, already starting to get upset.

"Yes, they did," I said, biting my lip, "It was his dad."

"His dad shot him?" he shouted. "Why would he do that to his own son? That's just evil!" You would have thought it had just happened, and that he had witnessed it.

I told him I remembered it being over money, and that only made it worse. Then I tried to calm him down by telling him that I really thought Marvin was in Heaven, and that we could still enjoy his music. That seemed to work, and he was able to control himself. He got really quiet for a while, so much so that I asked him if he was all right.

"I was just thinking maybe Aaliyah could sing more of his songs, you know, to keep his memory alive."

Cursing in my head, I slowly began, "Well, the thing about that is ..."

Needless to say, it was a rough day for the boy.