Pamela Warner nonetheless remembers the precise second she realized her son, Malcolm-Jamal Warner, had died. Particularly, the scream that emerged “from the underside of [her] soul” and that had her neighborhood operating to test on her.
“What got here up and what got here out was large,” she mentioned. “It was an indescribable ache that resonated by my physique.”
In an unique interview with “Good Morning America’s” Robin Roberts, Warner mirrored on her son’s demise and the grief that adopted. She additionally clarified particulars surrounding the tragedy, which conflicting stories had clouded. Warner defined that Malcolm-Jamal Warner’s spouse and daughter had been in Costa Rica as a part of an immersion program for his or her daughter’s homeschooling. Like most of the fathers and husbands in this system, the actor joined his household for the final week of this system, which was alleged to be “the enjoyable half.”
Whereas early accounts instructed Warner had drowned whereas swimming together with his daughter throughout a household journey to Costa Rica, his mom mentioned that wasn’t the case. Warner confirmed that the “Cosby Present” actor was swimming with a pal on the time of the accident.
“They have been within the water, I feel possibly chest-deep at, even at that. Perhaps waist-deep,” she mentioned. “There was an undertow and my son was not an skilled swimmer. He didn’t know tips on how to cope with an undertow. She was on shore. She was not within the water.”
For Pamela Warner, the bodily details solely inform a part of the story.
“That’s the bodily half,” she mentioned. “However the religious half is: that was his time. That was the style through which he was to transition, and that is what I consider and what I really feel.”
Regardless of the depth of her loss, Warner mentioned she has discovered peace.
“I’m very grateful that I used to be chosen to be his mom,” she mentioned. “I feel greater than something, I’m at peace with the whole lot that occurred. There was nothing left on the desk. There was no shoulda, coulda, woulda. I don’t have that. I really feel that our journey collectively as mom and son was full.”
Now, Warner says her focus is on carrying ahead her son’s legacy. Warner and her daughter-in-law, Tanisha, have expressed plans to honor the late actor’s dedication to supporting younger expertise with the Malcolm-Jamal Warner Basis and Rive & Ember.
“I would really like for [people to] proceed to help his legacy and help the MJW Dwelling Legacy [Instagram] web page,” she urged. “And love when you’ll be able to. Give when you’ll be able to. Simply be higher as a result of that’s what he wished. That’s what he was working in direction of.”
