An intimate moment in the home of a legend!

Wow-

So we went to Corona, Queens today, to tour Louis Armstrong's house, the one he lived in the last 30 years of his life. I was determined to get there; I had the "vision" and although we weren't sure if we would make it for the last tour we made our journey there. I was feeling a bit bummed bc the journey was taking longer than we had hoped, a few of the trains weren't running their normal course, but I said "ok it was the vision and at least we can see a new neighborhood and Louis' house if not the tour".

So the Lord truly blessed us...

To our so special surprise we, after arriving 20 min after the last tour was supposed to have left, were warmly greeted by very enthusastic staff who genuinly loved their jobs working at "scatchmo's" house, and we were immediately introduced to 84 yr old Gale, Louis' wife Lucilles' best friend and neighbor; then they said they would love to take us on a tour! And to our great pleasure we were touring with only two other people--one who happened to be Louis Armstrong's great newfew, Ray!Although that may not seem like a close relation, it was. Ray's mother was "adopted" by Lucille, and raised by her, and Ray lived in the Armstrong home for a few years in his youth. As Ray said he and Louis were the only two guys in the house, and Louis would often take him upstairs to his den and teach him about jazz, other times Louis would sit at the piano while his aunt would sing before dinner, and other times Louis would step out of his den onto the balcony trumpeting for the neighborhood so that all the kids would know he was home. He was a people person they said, you knew you were loved when you were in his presence. So there we were Mike and I in Louis Armstrong's house with his own newfew. Funny because we have all listened to his music, danced to it...I mean "what a wonderful world", "give me a kiss to build a dream on..." and there we were absorbing the personal stories of his life from his newfew.

It was a rare intimate moment into the life of one of the greatest legends of all time-jazz great foundly known as "satchmo."
Truly special. At one point in the tour Ray began to cry; it had been his first time in that house since his aunt Lucille died 23 years ago. He was so excited to share his story and be apart of carrying the legacy of his uncle he kept saying "tell people you were here with Ray, aka. bull boy."

Well that was a blessing from God, reminding us he is in the details of our life!

Then we went and explored the nieghborhood a bit, quickly discovering it is "the mission" of nyc. There were some amazing Mexican, and Dominican cafes-one cafe even had pasole, and tamales and fresh tortillas. Lets just say Corona is so me and Mike.

Now we are home...you know what....listening to Satchmo!!!