On July 26, 2010 my uncle was murdered in cold blood by a man named Michael Rivas. He killed my uncle because my uncle told him, “you don’t run these projects we do” so I guess one thing led to another meaning my uncle’s death. Till this day he roams around the streets of Springfield lurking in the shadows hiding from my family. Now I feel like the one who will end up running into him on a bad day and the anger from the past will slither its way into my heart and it may result in the death of him to avenge my uncle, even though he wouldn’t want anyone in the family to avenge his death so they wouldn’t live with the burden of killing someone and possibly going to jail. The day of his death I saw him lying on the sidewalk with blood pouring out of his neck, chest, and his back. My mother was holding him in her arms when he took his last breathe to try and say his last dying wishes but he was too stabbed up to gather the energy to say his last dying words. I was traumatized for a while after that, I couldn’t believe that my uncle just died in front of me like that. The day of his funeral I couldn’t even be in the church because it was open casket and I still couldn’t believe that he was off this earth. Everybody was mourning over his death except for us, we kept strong and kept our head held high and moved forward as we were all taught by him. That night when I went to bed I walked outside of my grandmother’s house, I saw him in my dreams getting killed, like the whole scenario of what happened was going on and something was stopping me from helping him in the fight. He reached out to me and told me to call for help but I wasn’t near the house any more it was pitched black. I had these god forsaken nightmares for weeks and it was the same thing every time I went to sleep.

This is the story of The First of Seven, Rodney a builder, an uncle, a friend, and a teacher to all who needed him when they felt like absolutely nothing. Rodney was the first of seven born from Elizabeth Carter. My memories of this man are great and some are not so much, but the good memories of this man I cherish. He was basically the father figure of my childhood as well as all my other uncles. When I was just a young boy at the age of five years old he taught me how to tie my shoe with the “rabbit ears” and till this day 4/16/15 I still tie my shoe that same way.

I remember the time when I broke my fingers and I didn’t cry until I saw my brother and him walking up the hill and they both said, “Stop crying like a lil girl man, man up”. I didn’t understand why they wouldn’t feel sympathy for me. But as I grew older I understood why they didn’t feel sympathy for me then. It was to toughen me up and that tough love made me the strong man I am today. Then when I was at eight years of age my mother bought me my first BMX Huffy two wheel bike but nobody knew how to put it together, until he came and put it together; also that same day he taught me how to ride it. Some of the bad memories I have of him was when I came home from school with an “F” on my test because I was talking during the testing session and he tried to discipline me. It wasn’t his place to do that in my mind so I fought him back and threw a shoe at his head. Another time it was in my grandmother’s house when he came there drunk, he reeked of cheap liquor and beer, he punched me in the stomach and told me to “toughen up lil boy” and I didn’t approve of his message to me so I punched him in the face and we started fighting.  I was only twelve years old.

But as a child I was fascinated with what my uncles would do during the day, so when I went outside to play I was really hanging around with my uncles during the day. They didn’t care because they knew in the future I would have to defend myself against enemies that they may have made in the past, or new enemies I have made so they would train me in fighting every day to keep my skills up. They never told my mother. I didn’t understand why they never did but now that I’m older I know the reason. The reason behind all the secrecy was to keep me and them out of trouble so we made a no snitching law in our group. So I thought if they didn’t tell her, then why I should have to tell her what I was doing with them. Each day after school I would face one of my uncles in training but after I would get my homework done. Every Monday I would face up against my uncle N-Cite because they wanted to build up my speed, and he was the quickest puncher out of all of them; he could throw 10 punches in five seconds. On Tuesdays it was my uncle Wink because they wanted to build my wrestling skills and my strength. On Wednesdays I would face up against my uncle Tef because they wanted to build my mental power for fighting and different strategies for fighting. On Thursdays I would face up against my uncle Rodney because he was the oldest and none of his little brothers could beat him up so he was like the grandmaster at fighting and never lost a fight in his lifetime. So I made a vow to myself saying that I would never lose a fight until I die.

I’m glad to have remembered who and what he was in my life. As I said before he was a builder, an uncle, a friend, and a teacher to all who needed him. Finally he is at peace and can see me now as he watches from the heavens I love you uncle stay strong.