As frequent visitors to The Block already know, I’m from a relatively small city on the coast of South Carolina called Charleston. I was born and raised in a town called James Island, which is right outside of downtown Charleston. James Island is one of those small towns where everyone’s family and everyone knows each other, and if they don’t know you then they probably know your mama and them.

Anyways, my mom called me the other day and told me about a distant cousin of mine that was murdered by her son here in Georgia, and that the son killed his younger sisters too. Hearing that put me in one of those somber moods, like “damn, this is a cold world” but it didn’t really hit home for me because I didn’t know the mother. Then, I started seeing stories online, talking about Juvenile’s daughter was murdered and the descriptions were the exact same story that my mother had told me and I put two and two together. (See news story here).

The mother was 39-year-old Joy Deleston, and she was a little bit older than me, so I didn’t know her. But she was a distant relative to me on my father’s side of the family, good friends with my first cousin on my mother’s side and the sister in-law of another first cousin on my mother’s side.

Not to make this about me but to see a story like “Rapper Juvenile’s Daughter Killed in Ga.” all over the internet is one thing, but to know that the victims in this are relatives is heart wrenching. My condolences go out to all the families and friends of Joy Deleston and her two daughters.

Damn, this can’t be life.