Saudia Shuler wanted to give her son, J.J. Eden, Jr., the prom send-off he only dreamed out, so she went the extra 10 miles to ensure it happened.
“I just wanted to do something no one had ever seen before,” Shuler answered when asked why she gave J.J. such an excessive prom night.
Shuler said she made a promise to herself on her death bed.
“I was messed up,” Shuler recalled. “I couldn’t walk for year and a half. I couldn’t wipe my butt.” Tough enough, but it was just the latest in a litany of medical and societal hardships she’s had to deal with since giving birth to her son. First his father, Johnny Eden Sr., was murdered, and she lost another baby she was carrying amid the tragedy. Then in 2007, she got hit by a car and was left with a slipped disc, taking her out of commission as a hairstylist. It was after she turned to cooking, selling platters out of her grandmother’s house in North Philly, that the stroke hit.
“I was like, I’m not going to be able to see my baby’s prom.” She vowed that if she lived to see it, if she lived to see him graduate, no one would stop her from going all out.
Shuler had surgery for thyroid cancer and being unable to afford a home nurse, she had to rely on her son and other family to take care of her. Thankfully, she made a great recovery but she then began to suffer from seizures.
In the house, Saudia kept a water jug that she would fill with any money she could spare.
“I called it my JayJay prom and graduation foundation,” she said. “Every day that I worked I put $200 in that. All my fives and change? I put them in that jug.” Shuler estimates yesterday’s send-off cost somewhere in the neighborhood of $25,000 — which was less than it should have cost. Many friends refused to be paid for their services, like makeup artist Tiffany Phillips, or gave her heavily reduced rates, like muralist Ivben Taqiy, or Cree of DeCreed, the prom dress designer who would only let her pay for materials. The sand was delivered and shoveled into place by her friend D. Her family and her adopted family of friends and neighbors all contributed. The flowers. The cakes. The photo booth.
“The whole North Philly helped me,” she said.
She went overboard biko!
ReplyDeleteShe went overboard biko!
ReplyDeleteBiurrriiffullll
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