Grief is going to follow you around forever. It has a knack for popping up even at your highest moments, ravaging your mental state. The context of varying forms of trauma will stay with you for the rest of your life. The key is trying to find some form of acceptance and peace with it.
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Consequently, you can dictate how you respond when the grief takes over. This is something prominent Christian artist TobyMac is dealing with after his late son Truett died at 21 to a drug overdose. Nowadays, he's grappling with the aftermath and remembering all the little things about him.
Recently, the Christian rapper spoke with PEOPLE in promotion of his latest album Heaven on My Mind. There, he candidly opens up about his last exchanges with his son before he tragically passed away at 21. TobyMac had been texting his son, telling him how proud he was of Truett for his first ever concert. How Truett responded sticks with Toby every day.
"And the last text he sent me, I don't know why this moves me so much, but he's like, 'Dad, you've always made me feel like a superhero,'" he says. "That moved me to my core, because that's the way you should make your kid feel. And I'm not giving myself any props. I'm just saying, 'Thank God I made him feel like that.'"
TobyMac Candidly Recalls His Son's Last Text to Him Before He Passed Away
These kinds of devastating moments are what inform TobyMac's recent album. He spent his 2022 album Life After Death grappling with grief in the active tense. Nowadays, he's figuring out how to exist in tandem with grief and continue to get up every day.
"It's walking through this and getting to a point where you can breathe again and live again," TobyMac says. "And still grieving deeply, but gaining a footing to where you can throw your fist up in the air and say, 'I'm going to live. I'm going to live to honor God... and to believe, but also to honor my son.'"
