Congratulations founding brothers and sisters of the Abram Wilson Foundation, WE DID IT!!!
We raised a total of $18,338 on Kickstarter but we also raised approximately $3,000 at Abram's memorial service, which makes a total of $21,338!!!! Thank you, thank you, thank you so much!
I've been away for a few days without internet connection so to come back to this incredible result was beyond amazing. I imagine Abram is up there saying, "Awesome Jennie. That. Is. Awesome", with a big fat grin on his face, eyes sparkling.
Tomorrow is Abram's birthday, he would have been 39. He wasn't much of a birthday person, he would be very serious when the big day eventually came around getting up at the crack of dawn to put himself through a hard core routine of exercise and practice time. For Abram, his birthday was the beginning of a new year, it was the day he would think about everything he'd achieved and how he wanted to move forwards. It wasn't a day for parties and presents.
So last year, having accepted that he wouldn't want to celebrate in the traditional way, I gave him his birthday present the following day with a note saying 'Abram, Happy Wednesday, Love Jennie xxx'. It was a poster of one of his idols, Michael Jackson, on the cover of Rolling Stone Magazine. For the first time in about 24 hours Abram finally broke out into a big smile, he loved Michael Jackson, loved his music and for once loved his present so much that he didn't mind getting one!
As it is Michael Jackson's birthday today and Abram's birthday tomorrow I thought I would celebrate by sharing a performance of the Jackson 5 reunited for the Motown 25: Yesterday, Today, Forever television special broadcast on 16th May 1983. I remember the day Abram introduced me to this little YouTube gem, he couldn't believe I'd never seen it before. When we watched it together, it was like he was a small kid taking it all in for the first time, even though I knew he'd seen it a million times before. Great music would always do that to him.
I'll be in touch again with news about the Philippa Project and the Foundation, but for now I hope you enjoy the music.
Till soon!
Love
Jennie x