Naleighna Kai's Literary Cafe Magazine NK LCM February 2018 Anniversary Issue | Page 44

Sharing My Trut
h
I did not lose my brother
Naleighna Kai
Over the Christmas holiday, my brother
came over to my house to help organize the
multitude of books that are being given away
for NK Recommends and the Cavalcade of
Authors this year. He’s been dancing around a
subject for a while now. “Why didn’t you come
to Uncle Lynn’s funeral?” It’s been the elephant
in the room for so long that said elephant is
part of the furniture.
One thing anyone knows about me is that I
don’t have a problem speaking my mind.
Except in this instance. My brother loved my
uncle, who for all appearances, had been a
hard-working family man, with a housewife of
nearly 30+ years, and two successful children.
That was the side that everyone knew.
He passed. I felt absolutely nothing. I didn’t
attend the funeral (this was my mother’s
biological brother) and I’m certain that it
raised quite a few eyebrows, but I wasn’t there
to see them. It wouldn’t matter anyhow. I had
kept that secret of what my uncle had done
to me way past the time I was a grown ass
woman. A woman strong enough to rip the
bandages off and let the wounds have some
open air and heal the right way. Even though I
had sought counseling for what my father had
done, I still couldn’t tell what my uncle’s sins
because everyone loved that man so much. No
one loved him more than my brother. I had
no plans to tell him--ever. I did not want to
lose my brother as I feared that the love he had
for an uncle—that he’d known far longer than
he’d known a sister who had been dropped
Photos from the Stepping & Spades April 2009
DJ Don (Donny Woodson) Celebrates his birthday with
Naleighna Kai
44 | NKLC Magazine