Lecrae Loses Fan to Cancer, Is Deeply Impacted by Her Final Message on Earth
Grammy Award-winning hip-hop artist Lecrae took to social media on Wednesday to share that a fan he recently met had lost her battle with cancer. He said her final words online have left a lasting impact on him that he will never forget.
The Reach Records founder recently teamed up with pop star Tori Kelly for a long-awaited duet. The song they wrote together titled, "I'll Find You" was meant to help spread hope to those battling cancer. Lecrae said he recently had the privilege of meeting a fan battling cancer that his song ministered to.
"This is Hayden Palm," Lecrae said, sharing a photo of him and Palm on Facebook. "I met her last month at one of my shows. Her and her husband, Adam, said how much the song 'I'll Find You' meant to them. Two days later I got a message that she had left this world for an eternal one."
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Lecrae said he was greatly moved after reading Palm's last post on social media.
"I'm am grateful for her more than she'll ever know," he said.
Below is Palm's post in its entirety:
"Last week, I planned my funeral. Literally. Adam and I went to the funeral home and I picked out a coffin, I picked out a funeral package, I answered questions like, 'Do you want to be refrigerated or embalmed?' 'Do you want a viewing?' 'Do you want to be buried or cremated?' I even went outside to pick out a plot of land that I will eventually be buried at.
Now most of you will never plan your funeral. For some of you it will be because you had an unexpected death, some of you will just avoid going all together. It seems gruesome, it seems depressing, and it seems unnatural. That's not exactly wrong.
I sat there staring at the various coffins on the wall and as I walked outside past 'Here lies dear old dad' and 'Our Angel,' I stopped at the little plot of land under the tree. I stared at the blank space that will eventually say, 'Hayden Palm.' I imagined my loved ones coming to lay flowers on the gravestone that I picked out. I imagined the tears that would fall on the stone, I imagined Adam standing under the shade of the tree telling me about his life, but most of all, I imagined the despair and sickness I would feel if I stared at that plot of land and thought, 'this is it.' This is it, all that I would end up being after 24 years of life would be a pile of bones under a gravestone near a tree.
What a bleak and bitter end. What hopelessness, and how depressing.
I, too, would avoid planning my own funeral if I was just planning on becoming dirt. Instead, I have a greater hope that this is far beyond it. That plot of land is not my forever home. My home to come is far better than anything I will ever be able to imagine. And because of that I was able to stand there, under the shade of the tree, next to my grave, and thank Jesus."
Palm's touching post embodied the reason Lecrae originally said he wrote the song.
"Life is a precious gift. A gift we often take for granted until it is threatened. Pain can be a haunting reminder to appreciate every waking moment. So we wrote a song to share our hope in the midst of that pain," the emcee wrote in an Instagram post shortly after announcing the duet in June.
"I'll Find You" is the follow-up single to "Blessings" off of Lecrae's new album, All Things Work Together.
"I'm hanging on by a thread/ And all I'm clinging to is prayers/ And every breath is like a battle/ I feel like I ain't come prepared/ And deaths knockin on the front door/ Pain's creeping thru the back/ Fear's crawling thru the windows/ Waiting for em to attack/ They say 'Don't get bitter get better'/ I'm workin on switchin them letters/ But tell God I'mma need a whole lotta hope keeping it together/ I'm smilin in everyone's face/ I'm crying whenever they leave the room/ They don't know the battle I face/ They don't understand what I'm going thru/ The world trynna play with my soul/ I'm just tryna find where to go/ I'm tryna remember the way/ I'm tryna get back to my home/ But I can't do this on my own/ That's why I'm just trusting in you/ Cause I don't [know] where else to go/ And I don't know what else to do," the lyrics read.
