Shelley Walcott: Don't Tell The Boss

"One Moment In Time" --- RIP Whitney Houston

By Shelley Walcott CREATED Feb. 12, 2012

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I was sitting at my desk in the newsroom Saturday night when I heard Mary, our desk assistant scream.  Odd for her.  She's usually pretty calm.

I looked over.  "What is it?" I asked her.

"Whitney Houston... is dead.  It just came over the news wire," she said.

Then it was my turn to scream.  I couldn't believe it.

Whitney Houston is my favorite singer of all time.  Over the years, there have been beautiful songs and talented artists who spend a season on the radio... then fade off into the forgotten. 

Not Whitney Houston.  Her songs were the soundtrack of my life. There are so many memories: 

Dancing with my then boyfriend/now husband to "Saving All My Love For You".  A friend belting out "I Will Always Love You" at our wedding."The Star Spangled Banner" easing anxiety as America entered the first Gulf War.  My husband and I singing along in the car to "Waiting to Exhale" as we moved our lives and small child cross country.  The list goes on and on...

... and the sentimentality of it all brings tears to my eyes.

Much will be said in the coming weeks --- and years ---about Whitney Houston's life, and whether or not her well known struggle with alcohol and drug addiction led to her death.  If I had to choose a song to punctuate Whitney Houston's life, I would have to turn to the chorus of, "One Moment In Time", a song of inspiration she recorded for the 1988 Olympics.  The words of the chorus are as follows:

I want one moment in time
When I'm more than I thought I could be
When all of my dreams are a heartbeat away
And the answers are all up to me
Give me one moment in time
When I'm racing with destiny
Then in that one moment of time
I will feel
I will feel eternity

Whitney's personal life may have made tabloid headlines.  And some of the choices she made were, frankly, questionable.  But despite her foils, her moment in time on this earth will never be forgotten.  She touched lives and moved hearts the world over.  She reached her destiny on this earth, and became the music icon she was born to be.  That voice will live on for eternity.

For the rest of my life I will treasure Whitney Houston's music. Her voice will be listened to over and over again for generations to come.

I am so grateful to have lived in her era.  Rest in peace, Whitney.