“I Had A Premonition”
MV: “For two years I went every Sunday and any other day that I could get there. The Sunday before he passed, I had a premonition that I was losing him. That was the saddest moment of my life. Here I am with one child left out of four, and to see him drifting away.”
Mary Vandross Took Action
“I told the nurse, ‘Please get him up. I want him to have dinner with me.’ So we got him up and he had watermelon and corn bread—his favorite food—and he was talking” normally that day.
The Request From His Mom That Luther Sadly Declined To Answer
“I said, ‘How do you feel?’ And he says, ‘Okay.’ I said, ‘Ronni? Do you know I love you so much?’ He said, ‘Yes.'” But Luther didn’t reply to his Mom’s next statement. “I said, ‘Please do me a favor and get well.’ And he never answered me.”
It Started With Mom’s Heart-Wrenching Attempt To Encourage An Ailing Luther
In a desperate attempt to encourage Luther to keep fighting, Mary sang him a song she hadn’t sang to him since he was a kid.
“I started singing: ‘You’ll never know just how much I love you / You’ll never know just how much I care …'”
Vandross Made His Mom Laugh In Midst Pain…But It Was Bittersweet
Luther instead lifted his Mom’s spirits:
“When I stopped, he said, ‘It was okay.’ I said, ‘Okay?! You know something? I have to duck from record companies trying to get me to sign up.’And he said, “Well, keep duckin!’ And we laughed. But when I left, and I saw him watch me, I just had a feeling that was the end.”
“That Thursday” Mary told her sister, “I hear death bells. I’m losing my son.” She continued, “And on Friday [July 1, 2005] I just couldn’t stop crying; I cried myself to sleep. And when I woke, my niece Brenda told me, “Ronni [Luther] died about an hour ago.”
“Oh, Lord…My Last Child”
“I screamed. I said, ‘Oh, Lord. My last child. Help me to understand.’ God knows how empty my life has been since all of my children are gone. I prayed for understanding. …Nobody on earth knows how I miss my children.”
All four of Mrs. Vandross’ kids died from diabetic complications.
