Just after Christmas, singer August Alsina revealed that his sister, Chandra had died from cancer, now he’s opening up about what it’s been like taking care of his three nieces in the wake of their devastating loss.
“I’m going through my process,” he said during an interview this month with Thembi from The Shade Room, according to CapitalFM. “I’m going through my journey, and I’m not looking for any sympathy, because I know that God has me even when I feel that God doesn’t. I know there’s certain things you can learn about God through suffering.”
On Dec. 26, Alsina made an Instagram post, where he shared a tribute video on Instagram and explained that since his nieces’ father, Mel, was killed, his sister had asked him to take care of her girls if she passed away.
READ MORE: August Alsina mourns loss of his sister who passed away Christmas night
“And while I’m suffering,” said Alsina, 26, explaining what it’s been like being a guardian while still grieving himself. “… While I’m watching my nieces suffer who are my kids now, to hear them tell me ‘I want my mother and I want my father’ and them seeing me as a person who can always fix something for them, and this is a situation that I can’t fix.”
His nieces have also come up with a creative new name for him.
“They call me Dommy,” Alsina shares. “It’s dad and mommy mixed together, and just the weight of that title alone, ’cause I don’t have kids of my own, it makes me want to be what I know I need to be for them, because I grew up with my father dead and having a strange relationship with my mother so I know what it’s like to go through life without having a person you can run to, without having a certain kind of foundation. So I’m saying all of that to say I am who I am until I get to more of what I’m supposed to be.”
In addition to losing his sister, Alsina has also battled an opioid addiction and liver disease. In an interview with Jada Pinkett Smith, he said it is an autoimmune disorder that runs in his family. He said in the interview that both his father and grandfather died of “severe illness.”
READ MORE: Jada Pinkett Smith helps August Alsina reveal struggle with disease
On Valentine’s Day he released an EP called “Forever and a Day,” which is not only his first project in three years, but also the first project released on his own label Shake the World / Human Re Sources.