April Nicole Cunningham
It seemed like a regular Wednesday evening for 27-year old April Nicole Cunningham. She’d just gotten off of work and went to her grandmother’s house to pick up her 10 year-old son Ketrick. She decided to leave her three-year old daughter Deandra and four-year old son Devontae at her grandmother’s with her mother Wanda. She kissed her babies goodnight and she and Ketrick got in the car to head back to her home in Saraland, Alabama. As she pulled off, she shouted from the window of her white Yukon, “I LOVE YOU, MAMA!”, turned up her music and drove home. This was the last time her mother saw her.
At approximately 2:30 a.m., Thursday, August 21, 2008, April Nicole Cunningham, known to family and friends as “Nicki”, was forced from her home by her estranged husband Dhati Baugh. Ketrick was in bed sleeping and heard a small commotion but figured it was his mother moving around preparing for work and school. When he looked at his alarm clock and saw the time, he dismissed the noise he heard and went back to sleep. I shudder to think about what may have happened if he would have come out of his bedroom. Or if the babies had been there! (Sweet Jesus, bless them!)
No one knows exactly how it all went down. Police found traces of blood outside of Nicki’s home, indicating that there was a struggle before Dhati managed to get her in the car. No one knows the conversation they had in the car or the events leading up to climax of this event.
All we know is that MY COUSIN, April Nicole Cunningham, a beautiful 27-year old mother of three…a small girl with big dreams and hopes for a better future for her children…was found shot and burned to death in the passenger seat of Dhati’s car. Police reports say that there was a motorcycle on a trailer attached to the car, which suggests that Dhati had planned to get away. Yet, that escape did not come.
A man in the neighborhood claimed that he saw Dhati standing away from the car, with his arms folded, watching my cousin’s body burn. It wasn’t until the fire trucks came closer to the scene that Dhati apparentally panicked and ran by a tree, where he shot himself in the head…sending his soul straight to hell…where now he burns…for eternity.
Why he did it? No one truly knows, though the rumors are flying around like paper planes. Nicki and Dhati had been separated for quite some time. She wanted a divorce….he obviously didn’t. And it’s very unfair that he took his own life because now we will never have the answers to the questions ringing in everyone’s mind…and he also stripped himself of any chance for redemption from this evil act.
Yet, I do not hate Dhati. I am hurt and saddened by my cousin’s death but I do not hate the man who killed her because I realize that it wasn’t him who killed her but the demon in full possession of his body, soul and mind. What good would anger and hate bring to an already painful situation? I forgive Dhati and I pray that my family will find it in their hearts to forgive him as well.
We know nothing of the torment that he went through or the type of life that he led that caused him to react the way he did. I pray for his family…that comfort is restored to their hearts during this time of mourning. Because no matter what he did or how he did it, there is still yet another mother without her son.
And my dear cousin, my sweet cousin, my cousin who drove me nutty in high school but always showed me how proud she was of me and how much she really did love me in spite of our disagreements. It hurts me that I do not remember our last conversation. I don’t remember telling her that I love her. I don’t remember hugging her.
It has been over a year since I saw her last, or heard her cute voice. I recieved a message on Myspace from her on April 18, 2008…telling me that she missed me…unfortunately this message has somehow been deleted from my inbox…the devil just keeps working, doesn’t he?
And the reality of it all did not hit me until I walked into the church and saw Nicki’s CLOSED casket and the large portrait of her hanging next to it. It was at that moment, that I cried for the first time over my cousin’s death; and by that time, she’d been in Heaven a little over a week.
My cousin’s life was full of ups and downs, with the downs being very looooooooooow downs! I won’t get into detail in respect of my family’s privacy but I will say that Nicki had to be a woman at a very young age and she saw things in her childhood that….well, that children shouldn’t have to see.
But yet, her spirit was one unlike any other! She loves her family more than anything in this world and there is nothing that she wouldn’t do for them. Even when we used to have our spells in school where we were mad and didn’t speak to each other for days, I always knew that if anything ever went down with me, it would always be Nicki who had my back FIRST!
I cried on the plane ride home, thinking of my cousin and all of the things I never had a chance to say to her and never had a chance to do with her. I cried for her mother, who along with losing her only daughter, has recently began her fight with the devil’s lie that is breast cancer…not to mention her over 30 year fight with a mother who continues, even in adulthood, to belittle and berate my auntie. (Side note: Wanda is my aunt by love not blood…it is Nicki’s father who is my blood uncle, as he is the brother of my father.)
But I know that Wanda is A-OK! Just talking to her made me see that she is soooooo conscious, one of the most conscious and aware people that I have ever met! She is an inspiration to me…mother of three, recovered crack addict, strong strong woman who is entering into life as a new person with every step she takes. I love you, Wanda…my dear auntie! Keep living, Lady…your life has just begun! 
My aunt Wanda
And to my sweet cousin, the voices of Mariah Carey and Boyz II Men ring in my ear as they sing:
Sorry I never told you
All I wanted to say
And now it’s too late to hold you
‘Cause you’ve flown away
So far away
Never had I imagined
Living without your smile
Feeling and knowing you hear me
It keeps me alive
Alive
And I know you’re shining down on me from heaven
Like so many friends we’ve lost along the way
And I know eventually we’ll be together
One sweet day
Eventually I’ll see you in Heaven…
***
Just as Wanda is an inspiration to me, her only daughter April Nicole inspires me as well! She always had a positive outlook on life, no matter how dark the days may seem! Through all of her hard times, she always managed to smile and make others smile with her sense of humour and all out warm-heartedness! She never had any fears…she was never even afraid of the demon who took her life. Even when faced with threats, she continued on each day as a hard worker at Mobile Infirmary (where her co-workers ADORED HER) and as a loving and dedicated mother to her three beautiful children, Ketrick, Devontae, and Deandra!
She was always the one we never worried about…because we all just KNEW that she would be alright. But I suppose that God felt that His angel had suffered enough during her time in this gutted world…and decided to bring her on home…and you know what? I ain’t even mad at Him!
But I WILL miss my cousin and yet, as my mother said, it is a bittersweet tribute to Nicki that we couldn’t view her in death…that way, we will always remember her in LIFE…LIVING! I love you, April Nicole Cunningham, and I forgive you…and I love you more…and I always will! See you in Heaven, sweet soul! Hold it down!
“WE LOVE YOU, NICKI!!”
Signed,
THE FAM!
***
ON A BRIGHTER NOTE: CLICK ON THE LINK BELOW TO VIEW THE VIDEO FOR NICKI’S FAVORITE SONG! EVERY TIME I LISTEN TO IT, I THINK OF MY COUSIN…AND I CAN HEAR HER SINGING IT WITH THAT CUTE VOICE OF HERS! THIS SONG WILL FOREVER BE KNOWN TO ME AS: “Nicki’s Anthem”!!
September 6, 2008 at 11:32 am |
tears roll down my face as i read. Beautifully written…..