Very sad news to report…Frankie Lons, the biological mother of R&B singer Keyshia Cole, passed away at her Oakland, California home while celebrating her birthday. She had just turned 61. Her daughter, Elite Noel, confirmed the news on social media early on Monday.
“Worse pain ever….to see my mama in a body bag on her birthday!” Elite said on Instagram. “My heart so f–—–n broke.”
Reportedly, Lons died from an overdose after relapsing. She battled drug addiction since Cole was a child and it eventually led to her having to give Cole up for adoption at the age of two years old. Her journey with going to rehab and entering back into her daughter’s life was documented on the BET reality series Keyshia Cole: The Way It Is (2006) and Keyshia Cole My New Life (2019).
She once forewarned her daughter about the reality of her being in the streets and using.
“If I die today you’re going to move on and you’ve got to make it,” Lons said. “You’ve got to live for Keyshia. You have to live for you and your family, not nobody else.”
Dealing with a family member or friend that’s on drugs is one of the hardest experiences one can encounter in life. For children, the feeling is helplessness and continual disappointment every time a parent decides to use their bill or food money for their habit or is found wandering the streets at dangerous hours as they desperately seek to self-medicate to numb the ills of trauma. The sudden weight loss and change in demeanor are all alarming signs.
Yet, despite their imperfections and the weight of maintaining a burdensome relationship with them, there always exist an unconditional love, and even a glimmer of hope that one day that person will see the light and get better. But, sometimes, it just doesn’t work out that way.
“At the end of the day, you’ll see me later — up there,” Lons told Cole on the 2019 reality show. “I don’t want to live forever.”
Rest in peace Frankie, someone that some of us know all to well.
