Missy Elliott f/ TLC - Can You Hear Me?

[Aaliyahs mother]
This is the information for
For where you can send the flowers
It's for Aaliyah
I'll give you the phone number in case you need it
Ok we’ll see you
Take care of yourself
I love you
Bye bye


[Missy]
I been checkin on your moms and dad
And your brother, sister since the day you left
Passed on and went away with God
But for your mom its been
So damn hard
I hate to even hear her cry
Aaliyah, she asked me why
Would her baby girl go this way?
Can you give me better words to say?

One day she’ll see you again
With the same old beautiful smile
Long hair and the voice of a hummingbird
You’ll be singing them same old songs
Aaliyah, can you hear me?
I hope that you’re proud of me
Me and Tim we been doing our thing
But It's never been the same
Since you had to go
I ain't never met a friend
More incredible

[TLC]
I know you in real good hands
With God but damn I miss you
Aaliyah, if you see Left Eye will you tell her
That me and Boz miss her too?
Cuz no ones gonna fill her space
TC L not replaced
Y'all the reasons we learned to love
Fly high with your 22 doves


One day we’ll see her again
With the same old beautiful smile
Crazy but sexy cool
She’ll be rapping them same old songs
Lisa, can you hear me?
We hope that you’re proud of us
TLC has come a long way
But its never been the same
Since you had to go
Cuz the healing process will be long and slow

Aaliyah, I know you in a safer place
You face to face with the creator
And I'll make up
And if you and Left Eye happen to chat tell her
Me and Tionne, we know that she much safer
If you see Biggie Smalls up in the clouds tell him
He's still the illest MC we had around
2pac; there is only one
Big Pun; RIP, we say one

One day we’ll see y'all again
With the same old beautiful smiles
All styles so many styles
And y'all be doing the same old things
The last time we seen ya
We hope y'all can change the world
Let them see how short life be
It would never be the same since you had to go
To the music world y'all are incredible

---

I thankfully found the lyrics "Can You Hear Me" after quite a few days of searching. I didn't want to comment on the song without them.

The first time I heard this song, I was riding on the bus heading home after work. In my own little world, looking out the window. Just me and my music, which is exactly the way I like it as the working day winds down. (Which is, coincidentally, also the way I like to begin my working days.) It got to me immediately, trying to blink back the tears that wanted to escape. There were a couple shoulder heaves while I kept the sobs from emerging.

Everyone knows how much I love music, but I don't think they realize how integral it is to me and my world. But I digress, that will be discussed another day.

An older lady looked at me with concern and sympathetic eyes. I gave her a weak smile letting her know I would be alright.

I was just listening to music.

The song not only commemorated Aaliyah and Left Eye, two of my favorite artists...but it also spoke volumes for all the deaths that I could not explain to myself.

Sunflower was not joking when she said it has not been the best of years for a lot of people. Despite the whole "c-word" that looms over my entire life now, I feel I've been blessed by a lot this year. Yet it seems that all around me people were not doing as well.

Last summer, an old co-worker fell down an elevator shaft and died. I had just seen her the day before. She wasn't going to Texas to visit her parent like she always did each summer. Instead she was just going to stay in Calgary and relax, having just finished teaching summer school. One fateful nite and she's gone. It ended up being her parents coming to see her and not the other way around. A visit to say goodbye.

That same summer a guy I knew from high school had a horrible car accident with a semi after a late nite of studying law. Just like my co-worker, he left us in an instant.

And to this day I still can not wrap my head around the World Trade Center disaster. People going home, people leaving home, all departed in the blink of an eye.

The Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan who were killed in "friendly fire" when a misguided American soldier bombed them. How do you explain that one to their families?

The lovely miss Aaliyah. How can her death be squared away knowing that her pilot was high on crack? Though we "Need A Resolution" to all this, nothing we reconcile ourselves to will ever bring her back to us.

And the vivacious Left Eye, she was always my favorite girl in TLC. A fun vacation in Honduras gone terribly wrong.

All these beatiful people gone from our lives through no fault of their own. Taken away from us with no apparent reason to be found. Nobody will ever be able to explain why these people were chosen to go and why we have been allowed to stay.

As Missy said: "Can you give me better words to say?"

Because I, for one, am at a loss.