Ty Ty

Many of you don’t know, but my family calls me Ty. It’s because of my middle name, which is Tyrone. I’m the second. My father is the 1st. Now thinking about it, they probably had me go by that nickname just to differentiate between the two of us. Whatever the reason, it worked and I never really gave much thought to it. When I was in the 3rd grade, I made a decision to go by my full name, Vincson. However, all my family continue to call me Ty. So from 3rd grade up until late 2018, if you weren’t family, you called me Vincson.

Recently however, I’ve began to go back and forth. The Disney cruise Marvel 41.5 cast in 2018-19 went by “Ty’s fam” as I revealed to them that only my family calls me Ty, and since I was about to send three months straight with them on a ship, I figured they’d become my new family for the time being and should be able to call me by my family name.

But, there was one family member, who didn't call me just Ty or Vincson. She called me Ty Ty. I’ve always been Ty Ty to Jewel Ford. Ever since we were pretending to be Power Rangers with my brother, Tevin, in MiMi’s (my grandmother, whom she called MiMi when she was a child, which is why we all still call her that to this day) yard. I think Jewel would play the yellow ranger, Tevin the black ranger, and I the red ranger. Tevin, you might have to fact check me on this. I’m pretty sure she didn’t play the Pink Ranger because I had a crush on the Pink Ranger, so…that would have been awkward.

Jewel was diagnosed with breast cancer, and she lived all of her life as a warrior battling with Sickle Cell Anemia. During Christmas 2018, she came home from Dallas using a walker. It was truly debilitating for me to see her in such a fragile state. But May 2019 came, and I went to visit her in Dallas and while I was sitting on the couch with her and Onjalai’s dog, Auggie, she opened the door AND RAN TO HUG ME. She ran to hug me. Just six months later, ran to hug me.

January 8th, 2020 around 7:09pm, I found out that, at least in this physical world, I won’t hear Ty Ty the way I’ve come to hear it for almost 30 years. I hold on by believing that one day, I’ll hear it again. Even as I type this and try desperately not to get salty liquids on this “expensive” computer, I’m reminded that the true gifts in this world are not what OR WHO we try to POSSESS. But who we love for all that they used to be, all that they are and all that they will be. I love you CUZZO. And I know you’ll run even harder towards your Healer to hug Him. And when I get up there, I promise to run to you.

Your Ty Ty