Remembering Bobbi Kristina Brown with heavy hearts

Bobbi Kristina Brown — the only daughter of the late singer Whitney Houston and performer Bobby Brown — tragically passed away yesterday at the young age of 22, almost five months after being found unresponsive in her family home. She had been entered into hospice care in Georgia after suffering from irreversible brain damage.

“It is hard to say goodbye,” reads a statement posted to the Whitney Houston Facebook page. “On Sunday, July 26, Bobbi Kristina Brown made her transition peacefully. The family thanks everyone for their loving thoughts and prayers. As Bobbi Kristina would say: ‘The wind is behind me and the sun is in my face.’”

In her brief life, Bobbi experienced so much. Growing up, she weathered her parent’s rocky relationship and adapted to being under the microscope, appearing in two doc-series about her family— Being Bobby Brown and The Houstons: On Our Own.

In February of 2012, Bobbi experienced the kind of tragedy no 19-year-old should have to face: the sudden heartbreaking loss of her mother. Just a month later, she beautifully paid homage to Houston during an interview with Oprah Winfrey.

“No one knows what an amazing spirit she was,” she told Winfrey in March 2012. “She wasn’t only a mother — she was a best friend. . . I can always feel her. I can always feel her with me. She always asked me,’Do you need me?’ And I caught myself, out of nowhere — I didn’t even know I said it — I said, ‘I’ll always need you.’”

In that same 2012 interview she expressed the wish to carry on her mother’s legacy by singing, acting and dancing. That year, she appeared on Tyler Perry’s sitcom “For Better or Worse.”

“She did a fantastic job,” Perry told The Hollywood Reporter of her appearance on the series. “And that kid has a such a future. She’s such an actor. I’m so proud of her. I’m telling you, as far as she wants to go in the business, she can.”

Bobbi also had aspirations to follow in her mother’s musical footsteps. According to close family members, she planned to record an album before the accident which ultimately took her life.  In one of her last Twitter posts, where she had 187,000 followers, she wrote: “I need2be in the studio RITENOW!”

Even as a young child, Bobbi was comfortable on the stage. During one of her mother‘s concerts, she was serenaded by Houston who sang “My Love Is Your Love” while holding her little hand. (Years later, in 2009, mother and daughter would perform a duet of the song in Central Park.) The lyrics speak to the unbreakable bond they shared: “Cause your love is my love / And my love is your love / It would take an eternity to break us.”

Tragically, Bobbi never had the chance to make her mark in the music industry, but she left a legacy all the same. The world will remember Bobbi for her strength in the face of great obstacles, as well as her unwavering loyalty to her late mother and those closest to her. “My strength is my family,” Bobbi told Access Hollywood. “And knowing that [my mother’s] watching down on us. . . She’s watching down and applauding and being happy and rejoicing.”

Rest in peace, Bobbi Kristina.

(Images via Facebook, Shutterstock)