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Being a kid who grew up in and around the church, I knew of the Pace Sisters, as a group. But I hadn’t heard of Duranice Pace, the individual until a video of her singing a song she created for Thanksgiving went viral.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BqgFbXMAwbI/
Since then, she stumbles across my timeline from time to time. A few weeks ago, Tina Knowles-Lawson shared a clip of Pace singing and Tamar Braxton, in the comment section, skipped over her vocal talent and ability—which was the focus of the post, to say: “Yeah but the wig is stressing me out.”
From there, Duranice’s sisters gracefully gathered Braxton, culminating with what can only be described as a spiritual read from Leslie Pace. In the midst of this read, Leslie said, “She shaved her hair because of the medication and everything that she’s been going through…”
I wasn’t clear about all she had gone through. But apparently, it’s been a lot. Years ago, the Pace Sisters, like the Braxtons, sat down with Iyanla Vanzant. During her conversation with Vanzant, Duranice Pace revealed that she had survived sexual abuse.
She said, “When I was 12, my mom asked me to stay with my grandmother and help her. She had had a stroke. She asked me to take my uncle his food, his plate. And so, I didn’t know he was drunk. And when I opened the door open, he grabbed me. He just swung me on the bed and he tore my clothes off. All I know is I just felt the worse pain in my life. I didn’t know what was going on. She knew something when I didn’t come right back. And I was crying to the top of my voice. She told my mother, she heard me saying, ‘Jesus!’ I was just saying, ‘Jesus, where’s my mother.’
My grandmother came with a broom. She said ‘Get off of her.’ She hit him so with that broom, until it broke and he just fell on the floor and started crying.
But from that moment on, I don’t know what it was, I didn’t want to be around him. It scared me. I bled for three months. And our family doctor said, ‘She’s going to always have problems.’
Recently, Duranice appeared on “The Steve Harvey Show,” there, she revealed even more of the challenges she’s faced throughout her life. Duranice, who has a beautiful, otherworldly voice, shared that there was one point when doctors shared that she might not be able to speak again, let alone sing.
“I believe the Lord gave me a touch when they fed rat poison in Rochester, New York and they cut out half of my vocal chords and they said I’ll never talk again. But the man upstairs said, ‘You gon sing again.’”
Pace revealed that she had thyroid cancer and they gave her three years to live, eleven years ago.
Pace told Steve Harvey that her goal is to sing on Broadway.
She ministered to the entire audience and had Harvey in tears as Pace sang and told Harvey that he really provides a service and a gift to others by bringing joy and laughter to people who haven’t had it in a while.
You can watch the moment in the video below.
You can check out the reaction to Pace’s appearance on “The Steve Harvey Show” on the following pages.
