Death of One Direction star rekindles childhood memories

Seven year-old me was the definition of a big time Directioner. 

My room was plastered with multiple posters on the pink and blue walls. Niall, Zayn, Liam, and Loui all had individualized pictures right next to my bed, while Harry watched over my sister and me while we slept.

He was tacked to the middle of our bedroom ceiling. 

I had One Direction Converse that matched my best friend’s. 

My backpack had the band’s group picture laminated on the front with several keychains that shared the same theme. 

Our white Lincoln Navigator was home to the band’s “Take Me Home” album that lived in the CD-Player compartment, and the raggedy nightgowns with those five beautiful faces, sat crammed in my dresser drawers unless I was wearing them. 

They were the focus in every picture from my childhood. 

I could recite the scripts of each music video word-for-word and acted them out while the white corded headphones strung from my mom’s phone. 

My sister and I would hover over the computer as I sat in her lap watching the video diaries the band posted each week. 

However, my biggest flex is from the concert of Aug. 8, 2014, when I got to see the five guys live during their early 20s and before they broke up. 

My best friend, Kallie Haynes, still holds the trophy for best Christmas gift I have ever received. As I sat stunned looking into the converse box with the ticket laying on the limited edition shoes, she told me that we were going to Boston to hear the boys live.  

On Oct. 16, 2024, my whole childhood was turned inside-out. 

The English singer, Liam Payne, was pronounced dead in Buenos Aires, Argentina after falling from his hotel balcony, located on the third floor, around 5:07 p.m. 

Hearing that the boy whose poster slept beside me every night was found to have multiple drugs in his body at the time of his death, left me in utter disbelief. On top of all of this information, rumors filled my ears that Payne was also an abusive boyfriend in many of his past relationships.  

Not only was my once celebrity crush gone forever, but he was a totally different person then I ever thought he was. 

For me, I think that knowing Liam grew into a man of many addictions is harder to wrap my head around than the fact that there will never be a 1D reunion…ever.