Cissie Houston, mother of Whitney made a good selfless decision to allow her daugter to be hounered in her own hometown where she was born and raised and where she first showed off her singing talent at her church choir with her mother Cissie, her godmother Arither Franklin and her famous gospel singer cousin Dion Warwick. Mother Cissie allowed the media to broadcast a four hour funeral and church service to the locals, fans and the rest of the world who were not invited to the funeral as the streets were also blocked and cleared from the people just to avoid a hollywood scene. Bobby Brown who was Whitney Houston's lover for fifteen years of marriage which eventually ended in 2007 due to domestic and substance abuse, also showed up at the funeral of his ex wife but immediately left ten miniuts after the start of the funeral due to mistreatment of security who moved him and his apparent entourage three times, and at this Bobby got up and kissed his wifes caskit and walked with his children who were hurt by the fact that they could not say goodbye to their once upon a time step mother Whitney. Cousin Dion was the main MC for the rest of the main service,respected public figures like producer,writer and Pastor TD Jakes; Playwright, writer, producer, director and actor Tyler Perry; Whitney's mentor Clive Davis, Rev. Marvin Winans, and Houston's co actor Kevin Costner from the movie of "The Body Gaurd" were all there to testify about Whitney Houston. Many of the stars such as the likes of Alicia Keys who dedicated the song "send me an angel" to Houston; Stevie Wonder rewrote the lyrica to "Robin in the sky", the Winans family which included gospel singers Bebe & Cece, Carvin, and Marvin sang near to the end of the service, R Kelly sang one of Houston last releases "I Look To You", and Donni Mclurkin sang "Stand" which was requested by the family. Other guests who were among the three hundred mouners included media guru Oprah Winfrey, actor Forest Whitater and singers Mariah Carey, Mary J Blige, Dian Sawyer, Jennifer Hudson as well as Brandy and her younger brother Houston's once upon lover and close friend RayJ Norwood. Marvin Winans said that it was good of Cissie Houston to invite the whole world to church and preached a profound message about how being a child God is not boring and that we must not lose heart when it comes to God because of worldly circumstances. At the end of the service after all the testimonials, the laughter, and preaching; raw emotions of Whitney Houston's funeral came down to that one moment, her voice. As she was carried in her gold and silver casket by navy officers her ultimate hit song "I will always love you" was playing and many including myself were once again heartbroken and hopeless as we were once again hit by the reality that Whiney Houston is no longer with us.
