A few weeks ago, as thousands of people began dying all over the country from the coronavirus,

I noticed the despair as people posted that they couldn't even have a traditional funeral to grieve.

Now before I was doing what I do now, I was a pastor for many years

and I offered online on Instagram to perform eulogies or prayers for any families who needed it.

Today was my first eulogy for a great woman, Lucille Marie Scott.

After the music is my eulogy. Sisters and brothers, we are gathered here today, a small crowd in a funeral, friends and family watching online,

unable to console each other in the ways that we are used to.

We're told that hugs and even handshakes are dangerous

in the middle of this global pandemic. But here we are, doing something that most of us thought we wouldn't be doing for a long time.

We are mourning the loss and celebrating the life of Lucille Marie Scott. And that loss is ours, it's not hers. Her life on earth was full. It was full of deeply felt love in friendships. It was full of family and children. It was full of education and employment. It was full of

singing and melodies. It was full of dancing and laughing. It was full of writing and wondering. Lucille's life was full in New

Orleans and her life was full in New York.

This loss today is our loss.

And how sweet of a testament is it to be able to live 75 years among us through

Emmett Teal, through the Montgomery Bus Boycott, through segregation and integration, through Jim Crow,

through the Civil Rights Movement and the Black Panthers, through Duwop and hip-hop, through R&B and God. Panthers through

R&B and gospel, through our and B and gospel,

through our first black president.

How beautiful is it?

To be able to live from December 8th of 1944 until April 9th of 2020 and

for those who loved you the most to still feel like they were robbed.

I was on a phone call with Lucille's daughter Jennifer this past week and she told me,

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