The Impossible Dream: Let's Breathe Together

By Raymond Boyce

The Impossible Dream - Everybody Breathe Together is documentation of Raymond Boyce's life and how he has been up against constant battle of asthma since childhood. But despite this debilitating disease, he never gave up on his dreams. In fact, he fought harder to pursue what he loves, and now he wants to inspire and uplift others who are strugg

• Language: English
• Publisher: Raymond Boyce
• Release date: Oct 4, 2023
• ISBN: 9798868901560

Book preview

The Impossible Dream

Let’s Breathe Together

Raymond Boyce

Copyright © 2023

All Rights Reserved

Contents

Chapter 1 — Raymond’s Story

Chapter 2 — Living in an Oxygen Tent

Chapter 3 — Missed School Days

Chapter 4 — The Saxophone Talking for Me

Chapter 5 — My Mother

Chapter 6 — Laying on the Altar

Chapter 7 — I’m Just an Instrument

Chapter 8 — TV Interview — Fake it ‘til You Make it.

Chapter 9 — Because of His Breath, I Can Breathe

Chapter 10 — Traveling while Promoting the Raymond Boyce Foundation

Chapter 11 — Studio

Chapter 12 — My Family in Music

Chapter 13 — My Brother Chris

Chapter 14 — My Sister Wanda

Chapter 15 — Child Praying to Die

Chapter 16 — My Brother, Randy, Teaching Me How to Talk

Chapter 17 — Growing up in the South

Chapter 18 — What Do You Want to Be in Life?

Chapter 19 — Police Coming

Chapter 20 — Wanted to Play Sports in School

Chapter 21 — Moving to Atlanta

Chapter 22 — I Can Run

Chapter 23 — I Got Down on My Knees and Prayed

Chapter 24 — God’s Marketing Tool

Chapter 25 — Wanting to Help My Father Work

Chapter 26 — Recording a music project with my brothers

Chapter 27 — An Impossible Dream

Chapter 28 — Starting the Foundation

Chapter 29 — In Memoriam

Chapter 30— Trying to Fit in

Chapter 31 — Build a Business

Chapter 1 — Raymond’s Story

Introduction

Although the world is full of suffering, it is also full of the overcoming of it. — Helen Keller

Life is a journey of ups and downs. Even if we don’t overcome the obstacles or suffering, we are most likely to reduce it. Everyone has their endeavors, and our success depends on how they take them. Despite this uncertainty, we can be an example or inspiration for others.

This is precisely why I decided to write this book. I want to inspire the readers in different ways and share my journey of overcoming my struggles and becoming more accepting of life and how it pans out for everyone.

As a formal introduction to this book, I am Raymond Boyce, the inspirational saxophonist. My life journey began in a small town out of Memphis, Tennessee. As a toddler, I always wanted to accomplish things in life, but little did I know of the way things were planned to pan out for me.

Born to Mr. Napoleon and Willie B. Boyce, I am the fifth of six children – four brothers and one sister. While my siblings were healthy and active as children, I didn’t face the same luck. On the other hand, I was born with one of the worst cases of Asthma: Bronchial Asthma.

I was allergic to almost everything and had to live in an oxygen tent as a child.

At times, my lungs wouldn’t stop gasping for air, as if my life was counting on it. With countless days being spent at the hospital, I didn’t have a normal childhood and was held back in life. With silent sadness, staying at home or hospital from morning to night, I observed other kids creating childhood memories and spent most of the time longing to play outside like most kids my age. Whatever little confidence and courage I had was also shattered during this time.

I recall a time when the doctors informed my parents that Bronchial Asthma is one of the worst cases of asthma, and only 6% of people could recover from it compared to the severity of the disease I had. If asthma was treated well, it could reduce the symptoms; otherwise, they had informed my parents that I might never get better. However, then again, who knows what will happen next?

Ever since I was diagnosed with asthma, my life has been a whirlwind of doctor visits, hospitals, and medication. My groggy eyes were acutely aware of the machines pumping fluids into me. Every day, I got eight shots in each of my arms to keep a record of responses to certain allergy triggers. In trying to figure out what I was allergic to and how I could deal with it, the doctors had to mark the injection point with a different color marker to refrain from injecting it the next day.

To sum up, I have lived with the challenge of chronic lung disease throughout my life. However, this challenge has contributed to who I am today. Regardless of all the higher climbs it demanded, it allowed me to accept the good and bad of life.

Often, I ended up questioning my parents, Why am I the one sick all the time?

My mother always comforted me, I don’t know why, but there’s got to be a reason for this.

Little did she know that her words of wisdom felt sterile and hollow to me. Reflecting on those days, I recall an old song that used to be played, We’ll Understand it Better by and by….

Well, of course, when you’re the one going through something so critical, you don’t understand it by and by. It was the same for me.

How could a child understand something of this magnitude?

Throughout my childhood, there were many close calls. Every time my body would warn me and my asthma would flare up, I’d want to die. I would tell my brother, Randy, I love you, and I won’t see you anymore.

But, somehow, I’d make it to see him the next day. To my disbelief, I used to question myself, How did I make it through? and my brother comforted me, I told you that you weren’t going to die. You can’t die yet.

This feeling remained a constant in my life for a time until I could notice things changing slowly. While the word ‘death’ tends to freak people out, I lived every day with death standing before my eyes to knock anytime.

At that precise moment, I wasn’t sure about my health, but I was able to endure it more. I was able to sleep a little better at night, or maybe I had just accepted that asthma was another part of me. Elsewise, maybe I got used to feeling the same feeling, and I forgot how to feel the other way.

Ever since I can remember, my parents have been my ultimate support. I had religious parents who continued to pray throughout, even when I didn’t understand what prayer could do. They were not the only ones who prayed for my well-being; there were many other people as well. You could say that an army of people was praying for me — the pastor, the church members, the community, friends — a host of people. Indeed, it’s a warm feeling to realize how most people displayed their concerns and love through prayers.

Regardless of everything, I still did not believe in His existence. But amidst everything, each time they prayed, I believe God allowed me to sleep.

Most of the time, in order to make sure I was all right, my mother would stay awake and watch after me. So, my little nap also allowed my mom a few hours of rest. At times, I thought it was the end for me, but then God would bring me back to life. Thus, I knew I had to be stronger to keep surviving. Hence, it was the only thought that crossed my mind as an eleven-year-old.

Since my parents had many friends around the country, many people visited us in town to stay at our house and help my parents take care of me. And I will forever remain grateful to those people.

Growing up in a family that was full of music enthusiasts, it was in my genes that I would become a musician. My father was a singer who always sang, and people loved to hear him. I have four brothers, who are good at playing the instrument, and one sister, who can sing. I was the only one who couldn’t play an instrument due to my chronic health condition. My asthma would react every time I tried to blow into the wind instruments, making it impossible for me to play. I recall when I was in fifth grade. The teacher had finished setting up for a game. I played the game and eventually won a 45 of BB King playing the guitar. At this time, I was on cloud nine and couldn’t wait to get back home. I heard BB King on the guitar when I reached home and felt wonderful. It felt like the guitar could connect to the emotions and talk for oneself. Hence, I told my parents that I wanted to play guitar, which marked the beginning of my journey in music.

My immense love for music made me feel like it could talk to me and be my voice. Thus, I was delighted to learn. Unfortunately, at that time, they didn’t teach string instruments in school. However, one of my neighbors had a saxophone, and I thought I could learn over it.

Soon, as my parents discovered my interest in playing the instruments, my father visited the school and asked if there was any way I could play the saxophone. But, because of my asthma, I was advised to take lessons in fingering and music theory. From this point onward, the saxophone became the highlighted instrument on my list.

The day I realized I was healed is the day I’ll never forget because it marked a new beginning. That specific day, Randy and I took out running. Knowing that I had asthma, we still began to run, and I realized that I could still breathe. I wasn’t wheezing, coughing, or displaying any other symptoms. Completely astonished, I blurted out the good news to Randy, and we made the decision to keep running until we could determine how far I could go before becoming ill. Miraculously, I outran him, still breathing all well. With a cheerful smile, I exulted, Man, it’s gone!

It was the most unexpected thing that ever happened to me. Now that I am writing about it, I find it so hard to put it into words. Surely, it was a feeling like no other.

Following that moment, I threw away all the medicine and gave away the breathing machine. I was ready to re-live my life according to how I have always wanted to.

Consequently, I began to practice music day and night. I took lessons and put immense effort into playing saxophone. As I was determined, I put my heart and soul into it. I kept learning and doing better. Eventually, to make it into the music industry, I started by playing behind many artists and then was motivated to be a solo artist. At first, I wasn’t sure if I was ready to perform solo, but once I stepped in, opportunities started to knock on my door to success. Over the course of time, more and more people began to enjoy hearing me play.

Honestly, it was even more wonderful of a feeling when the same people living across the town, who once used to pray for me, invited me to perform in their cities. As I played and heard, I was offered TV shows, opening doors to travel all over the country. I began performing and doing concerts as a solo artist.

However, as time went by, I realized that I survived by God’s grace. Those prayers acted out as miracles and changed my life for good. It took me a while to accept it, but my parents continued encouraging me to have faith and know that things would work out for my good.

I now understand what people meant when they said their mother prayed for them. Today, I accept the fact that mothers are praying warriors. Throughout my life, my mother has taught me the power of prayer, and while I was sick, she continued to pray until my situation changed and I healed.

Although, at first, frustration and fear engulfed me because of which I didn’t believe in the existence of God. As a little boy, I always questioned my suffering as I hadn’t done anything wrong to God. However, the only reason I thought I was living at that time was because of my state of being strong. To tell you the truth, I didn’t even weigh about 78 pounds then, but I just felt strong.

As I grew older, I began to thank God for my survival. There were days when I felt like my body would give up on me. But maybe I was supposed to live, and it was His plan all along.

Although I didn’t know what His plan was for my life, Look at me today!

I’m