The funeral was going to be held in New York City where he orginally immigrated into the United States.

So I had to drive up there leaving Florida on Thursday night. 22 hours later we arrived in New York City and drove straight into the borough or Queens where they were having the wake. I met a lot of cousins that I haven't seen in years, and the occasion was not one that we wanted to be united about. But nonetheless, it was really nice to see them.

Anyways, I went out into Far Rockaway, Queens to stay for the weekend. On the Saturday I went for a walk over to Mott Avenue to go and check out some hats and sunglasses at this guy that I have been visiting for years. He always has the latest and hypest gear. He still recognized me and hooked me up with a real cool Kangol cap and some shades for my cousin, Andrew.

In the evening, we all went to the first day of the public viewing of my Uncle Dan. This was held in the Liberty Avenue area of Queens. There was a lot of animosity between family members who had thier disagreements present at the viewing, but we all hoped that they would just put that aside for this moment just to be respectful of the occasion.

After the viewing for Saturday ended at 9pm, there was a wake held nearby. This was the same night as the Lennox Lewis vs. Tyson match. Of course the house where the wake was being held, also was showing the fight. So, around 11:30pm, all those who were in the house, were watching the fight. It was a half and half crowd. If you saw the fight, or read about it in the newspaper, then you know that it was definitely a great bout where Lennox destroyed Tyson.

Once that fight was over, my cousins and myself (who rarely ever get to see each other all at the same time) wanted to go out to a club and party a little. My cousin said that he got hookups at this club called Mirage where he'd get the whole lot of us (about 15 of us) into the club at no charge. When we got there, to our surprise, we ended up paying $8 per person to get in. It was ridiculous, but oh well.. I expected to pay something anyways so that I wasn't going to let that ruin my night.

Once we all got in there, our first impression was that it was kinda ghetto. There was only ONE bar with about 3 bartenders. There was one dancefloor with a decent lighting system. The "VIP" area consisted of red furniture that you can find at a yard sale. Kinda like that special couch set that your grandma has with the plastic on it.. ya.. but this one has the plastic off!

Anyways, the music wasn't all that bad. They played music enough to keep us jumpin. I do have to admit that I didn't like the DJ's music transitions. It was very annoying. It was almost as if it was rookie night at the Mirage.

Later in the night, I was walking from one end of the club to the other and all of a sudden this girl grabs my arm and stops me. (yes... this happens a lot, but this one was different) She says,"KELVIN?" And I'm thinking to myself, "Who is this??" Then I realize that its my nemisis and so-called best friend n8 dogg's cousin. This was a New York plot to try and hurt me IN the United States because he couldn't get the job done when I was in Canada.

No no.. just kidding... it was real cool to see her and just a coincidence that I bumped into her that night. After the night at Mirage, we all went home to sleep and prepare for Sunday's viewing.

On Sunday, the original plan in the daytime was for all the cousins to go to the movies or something. Some sort of outing that the cousins could do for the last day before the funeral. But that did not end up happening as the whole day was set for getting everyone ready for the final viewing between 6 to 9 pm.

Now, as I understand it, I was there when the viewing was closing at nearing 9pm. I was indoors talking with some aunts and uncles. Just then, I see a big crowd rush outside of people running. I walk outside and their seemed to be an altercation in the parking lot between some family members.

I don't know the story behind it, but all that I saw was a lot of yelling and commotion. NYPD was called to the scene and arrived in literally seconds. Then backup units flew in from all corners. Paramedics then arrived to the scene as well. Like I stated earlier, I don't know the drama behind it, but what I understand happened was that Uncle "A" and Uncle "B" were arguing over something in the parking lot. Then the wife of uncle "A" came to find out what was all the commotion about, just then one of uncle "B's" daughters got into a physical altercation with the wife of uncle "A". The son of uncle "A" came to break up the altercation and was successful. Once he got the two ladies seperated, uncle "B" then pushed him down and kicked him in the face. The wife of uncle "A" who just got seperated from the daughter's fight was then caught on the receiving end of uncle "B's" wife who jumped from the top of a car with the end of her high heel shoe and hit her in the head. It was very bloody and not pretty. After the rush over 200 of those present for the viewing came to seperate everyone, the police just came and started arresting people.

Lots of unnecessary drama that occured even before they could lay my Uncle Dan to rest the next day.

I was at the hospital waiting for my aunt to come out and see if she was okay.. She was unconscious for a while and then came through. The doctors and police officer said that the heel punctured her skull from the back. If it had been hit just inches over to her temple, she'd easily have been dead.

Thank goodness that wasn't the case.

The next day, there were some speculation that there would have been some police presence needed at the funeral in Long Island. But the funeral went smoothly and we all laid my Uncle Dan to rest.

Some odd facts came up concerning my Uncle's suspicious death. He was actually supposed to return back to the USA the following Wednesday of his death and bought a lot of shrimp to take back with him. He also has 2 little sons under the age of 10 in Florida that he cares so much for so why would he hang himself? An autopsy showed that he did not die of strangulation or by being hung. He died of a heart attack. Now what would provoke that heart attack? One of the reasons why he was in Guyana was that he was there to collect money for a house that he had sold to some people there and they were not paying him. There are theories that he was killed by those very people to avoid payment. There are lots of other theories involving a large some of money and his 2 little sons but I can't even get into that here because its way too deep.

Anyways, one more last thing about this.
On our drive back from New York to Florida, I was driving. The whole weekend I had little to no sleep at all. So when driving, I stopped over in New Jersey at a rest area to catch a few Zzz's so I wouldn't sleep on the road. The whole car was sleeping from the hours of 2 to 4 am. During that time of sleep, my dad told me that he dreamt and saw my Uncle Dan standing right there in front of the parked car! As my dad was telling us this when we all woke up, he said that the message that my uncle gave him was that he didn't commit suicide.

Kinda freaky, huh?

Anyways, I'm back here in Orlando, and I have been offered a new life to start in New York City. Will I take it? Only if they want to take a chance on me.

All the best,
-cK