Chapter XXI – Anthony’s Last Few Months on Earth

December 2006, Mother and Anthony went to Aunt Nellie’s house for Christmas that year. Aunt Nellie has two daughters, Beth and Tina.  Tina married Greg and they had twins, a boy, Gregory and a girl, Christina.  Beth married Danny and they had two daughters, Dena and Elissa. Dena married Brad. 

All these people including my mother and Anthony were at the table eating supper and everyone was talking about where they’d like to go on their vacation.  Anthony said he’d like to go to Cuba.  He’d wanted to go to Cuba for some time because a couple of his friends in Mississippi were from there and they told him how pretty it was. These were the same friends that put the tattoo of the three dots on his hand.  

When Anthony said that Tina said, “Why, so you can meet your dealer in person?”  Anthony got up, walked away from the table, went to the car and called me.  He was very upset and I told him I’m sure she didn’t mean it that way.  He’d been trying so hard to straighten up so when she made that comment it really hurt his feelings.  I told mother about this later on and she said she didn’t think anything about it at the time but now that I mentioned it she did remember Tina saying something to that effect. She also agreed that Tina didn’t mean it the way Anthony took it.

That night was the night Anthony made the decision to go back to Florida. Carrie turning him down and Tina making that comment pushed him over the edge. Honestly, I think he was just looking for an excuse to go back to Florida.

Susan, a girl he’d been talking to ever since he got out of jail had been trying to get him to come to Florida to stay with her and now he was going. Neither Mother nor I liked Susan because she was one of the people he was selling drugs to before he left Florida and she was no good. Mother and I begged him not to go but he was nineteen now and could make his own decisions so mother took him to Florida.

Not long after Anthony moved to Florida he was on the phone with me and started yelling at this person.  He kept saying, “Man get away from me, I don’t do that anymore!!!  Man, I told you get away from me!!!” I was very proud of him for trying to get his life cleaned up and staying on the right track.  I also knew in my heart he’d never be able to get a job with a felony on his record.

There were many times Anthony called me and he was either staying with a friend of living in a hotel.  His life was going downhill and I knew it was just a matter of time before he would be selling drugs again.  We had many discussions of him trying to clean up his life and how hard it was for him to get a job.  I told him it would be very hard with a felony on his record and in order to make the amount of money as fast as he wanted, he’d end up selling drugs again.  He kept telling me that would never happen but I knew in my heart it would.

One night, not long before Anthony passed away, he called me.  He was very hyper and very excited.  He told me he had $11,000.00 in his pocket and wanted me and the boys to come see him, he would pay for the trip.  It was then I realized my son had started selling drugs again and my heart sank. I explained to him we couldn’t come see him because I couldn’t get off of work for that long. 

During our conversation he begged me to leave Eddie for good and come to Florida to live with him.  He told me he would take care of me and the boys.  It then got very quiet and he said, “I miss the days when it was just you and me and I would sit in the bathroom floor with you while you got ready for work and you would sing to me.” I could feel my heart in my throat it took everything I had to fight back the tears.  I missed those days as well but no one can turn back the hands of time.

I told him I couldn’t leave Eddie to move down there to live with him.  I didn’t tell him the reason I wouldn’t move to Florida was because I was afraid of his friends and I didn’t want to put his brother’s lives or my own in danger. Always, always go with your gut feeling. 

In December, 2006, Anthony called me and told me JP had died in a car wreck.  He was on his way to work when his vehicle hydroplaned and hit a pole killing him.  I felt so sorry for Anthony because he’d lost so many friends at such an early age.  This just goes to show there is no age limit in Heaven.