Tamar Braxton is speaking out on the Braxton family’s decision to not have a public funeral or memorial service for their beloved sister, Traci. Traci died on March 12 after a year-long private battle with esophageal cancer. The loss has been devastating for the talented and close-knit family. Almost immediately, reports surfaced about the tension between Traci’s husband of 25 years, Kevin Surratt Sr., and the family being at odds over plans to host a public memorial and private funeral. Traci’s mothers and sisters did not attend, allegedly claiming it went against Traci’s wishes. Now, Tamar is explaining why her family hosted a private celebration in Traci’s honor with just family and friends.
“The truth is my family is really hanging in there. It’s been very difficult if you can imagine. We were just there with her by her side until the end. It was amazing,” Tamar said during her recent co-hosting gig on Dish Nation. “The celebration of life that you guys saw was actually her heavenly birthday. My sister was very particular and she didn’t want a funeral, she didn’t want anything of where anybody was going to be sad.” The sisters also are memorializing Traci with a piece of jewelry that has a special meaning. “We also, as her sisters, we have hummingbird lockets and its a locket because her ashes are actually in it,” she explained. “And we all have one and the reason being is because she wanted to go everywhere that we all went. Even if I don’t have it on, it’s in my purse, it’s in my bag, it’s next to me. And the hummingbird symbolizes…she had five hummingbirds [tattooed] on her back to represent each one of her sisters. She wanted to be a hummingbird and she looked at us as hummingbirds.”
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Surratt Sr. told Page Six that he invited the family and they chose not to attend. He also said that the same invitation was not extended to him for their private celebration in honor of what would have been his wife’s 51st birthday. As for reports of him “cashing in” on Traci’s death and him not honoring her dying wishes, he says it’s all false.
“I was with my wife..more than anybody in this world,” Surratt told the media outlet. “I know my wife, and when she got cancer, we really started to communicate about funeral plans and I was still trying to find treatments for her and I went to every single one of her doctor appointments throughout our entire marriage. That’s how we were, and now they’re treating me like a [deadbeat] husband,” he said. He shot down rumors that he was planning a funeral months before Traci’s death without her knowledge.
He insists he followed Traci’s wishes to the T. Per Suratt Sr., Traci did request a public memorial. Their only child together, a son Kevin Jr., spoke at the memorial, saying that he was happy his mother was memorialized publicly as she deserved.
