I met Destinie in 2006. She had moved here after the exodus out of New Orleans due to Hurricane Katrina. She bounced around for a while, from St. Louis to Houston, and then finally in Merritt Island Florida. Always looking for a home that felt something like home. She was born and raised in Shreveport Louisiana under the name Dennis LeBeaux. It was tough but she said the experiences she had there built who she became as a person. Growing up of mixed race was hard enough, her mother was black and her father was white, add in the fact that she always believed that she was a woman, and you can only begin to understand what she went through.
Destinie always greeted everyday with a smile. Her mother had always told her that it was the only way to go through life. “You will always be faced with adversity child. It is how you greet that adversity that defines who you are.”. She told me her mother would always say that to her when ever she would get into fights just for being who she was. I can believe it. because whenever I saw her she always had a smile on. She never backed down from anyone. She was truly one of the toughest people I had ever met. Those rare occasions when I would see her at her worst she still would manage that smile and an air of southern charm. “My mama raised a lady, and my daddy raised a fighter.” she would say and then have a hearty laugh.
Destinie had a dream that one day she would headline a burlesque show on Broadway. She made the move to New Orleans to learn her craft in the clubs at the far end of Bourbon St. That is where she met heroin. New Orleans is a great city, but it can chew you up and spit you out if you’re not careful, and Destinie was letting the good times roll. She was at her bottom on that day when Katrina battered the Crescent City. she took refuge in the Dome and saw the atrocities that occurred there. Then and there she vowed to get herself clean and never return to the state that she loved.
She grabbed one of the busses that evacuated the stragglers in the storm and made her way to St. Louis. Quickly she realized that the Gateway city wasn’t for her either, so she finally hitched her way to Houston. She had heard that most of New Orleans was there. It was the city without the city. Once there she found that it was the part of the city that she wanted to leave behind in the first place. After a few months there, she hopped a Greyhound to Florida. Since she couldn’t have the bright lights of Broadway yet, she would settle for the rockets red glare of the Space Coast.
She settled in and worked at a club that did small drag shows. She was an instant hit. Destinie had an amazing voice, but her true talent could be found in her poetry and costume design. She was an artist in every sense of the word. I met her in an art supplies store. I had just begun my fascination with the world of art. I was standing in the acrylic and oil paint aisle. I was completely baffled by the selection, and since I knew nothing about nothing when it came to art. I was a lost cause with the selection and colors. I had no idea where to begin.
“You look like a deer caught in headlights child.” I heard come from my left. A definite Louisiana slang accent.
“I have no idea what I’m doing here. I want to paint, but I have no idea where to begin.”
“Start with your soul. It’ll tell ya what to do.”
With that I took my first look at her. There was that smile. She was tall and very slim. She was showing her age, but you could see that she was a looker in her day. I could also tell that there was something different about her but different has never bothered me. Different was something that intrigued me. I had questions for different. Our friendship began there.
Destinie would teach me how to paint and I would ask her questions about how she dealt with people. It seemed like a very lopsided friendship. I offered nothing and she offered life experience. Destinie had a way of looking at people and seeing potential until they gave her a reason to see them any other way. That is how she would greet everyone and anything, with a smile.
Destinie moved to Orlando two years ago, to renew the pursuit of her dream to headline Broadway. Working in clubs there singing and reciting her poetry. She even began doing a little stand up comedy. She would pack the house wherever she was. She shined on stage. It was where she belonged.
I hadn’t seen Destinie in about a year. She worked nightly at the clubs, and with my career in art taking off. I didn’t have much time to go anywhere or do anything but paint. I sold my first painting six months after she had moved for a rather large amount of money. I sent her half of it with a note thanking her for all the advice and instruction that she had given me. She called me right after she had received the check and asked me what I wanted her to do with it. “What am I supposed to do with all this money? You are a sweetheart child, but a fool and his money are soon parted.”. I said she could do anything she wanted with it, but I would hope that she would put it towards her dream of Broadway. “I gotta make that dream happen myself child.”. She then gave the entire sum of money to a local Orlando LGBTQ group in my name.
That is just how she was. If you have gathered by now that all of this has been written in the past tense, you would have undoubtedly come to the conclusion that she is now gone. You would be right about that. I got the news today that she had been killed over the weekend. The report says that it was a crime of passion. That she had surprised some unsuspecting. I know that there is no way that is true. Destinie never hid who and what she was. This was more likely a case of some guy looking for a chance to kill a “queer”.
I am angry and heartbroken and have no idea what to do about it. I want to lash out, but I know that is the last thing that Destinie would want. She would turn to me and say that quote from her mama, “You will always be faced with adversity child. It is how you greet that adversity that defines who you are.” I choose to define myself as that same kind and caring person that Destinie was.
Destinie will be remembered by all that knew her. The spark of inspiration that she ignited in everyone she met, will forever glow within them, and they will inspire others. The chain will forever be linked to her. Be creative, be kind.
No comments:
Post a Comment