The tragic passing of my friend Dakota Nelson‘s lovely wife Ream Alameel Nelson has been on my weighing on my mind for sometime. This touching local news video featuring Dakota and his kids being surprised by new cameras with a check is really touching. What Emeri TeAroha and others have done to help raise money for our dear friend is something that speaks to the kindness of our communities.
But there was really special about Ream and Dakota that you’re not going to get from this video, that on its own will certainly leave you in tears. But it’s only part of the story. One important detail is missing.
Ream was a princess.
Yes, Ream Nelson was an actual Princess, her father is a Prince. She was supposes to marry a Prince.
She was born a Saudi princess, born to a Mormon mother who once upon a time back in college, fell in love with a member of that oil rich Kingdom’s rich beyond our wildest dreams Royal family. She followed him to Arabia and they made their life there.
Now we’re not talking about some Prince at the fringes of the Dynasty. We’re talking about a woman who in a few moves could have been a Queen of Arabia.
We’re also talking about one of the sweetest girls I ever met, who recalled to me growing up in a palace watching Aladdin, realizing she was in Aladdin. The riches and how little it could mean without true love was not lost on her.
I remember the first time I heard of Ream Nelson. I walking from my bedroom to the shower back in college at 420 Campus Street at WSU. That’s when Dakota appeared in my hallway during that Summer sessions.
Nothing about Dakota surprises me.
He’s a Disney character himself. I told him that he and my best friend Wyatt Powell were never going to marry a typical American girl, and I was not wrong.
I looked at Dakota, and there was a brief pause,
“Hey Dave”
“What are you doing here Dakota…you’re supposed to be…on a Mission.”
Dakota and I went on some amazing adventure where he protected me, like well…a Disney character.
We used to listen to his rebel father’s Country Rock mixtapes, on road trips where Dakota contemplated quietly if he was going move away from his life as a Mormon, or embrace it. By golly, I could tell you all kinds of stories, and through it all he was a Good man.
His father gave him his stage name. It’s complicated.
And he somehow found a way on his own complicated journey, to marry quite possibly the most beautiful Princess in all of Christendom and the Saracen kingdoms that surround it.
This tall striking Princess who could pass for White, yet with such unmistakable Arabian eyes; who left Saudi Arabia with her Mormon mother and her brothers and sisters, during the confusion of Persian Gulf War.
To start from the bottom. To start all over again as just…regular people.
It’s complicated but they left it all behind.
She was a Princess that could have returned to the kingdom with a key to a palace and untold riches. But she chose Dakota. She chose love. It was all or nothing, and all of it meant nothing to her without the man on a mission who took her breath away, somewhere in Colorado.
She chose to have as many kids as she could with this Prince charming, Ream loved with all of her being. She told me so. When Dakota brought her me to meet her, hoping his old pal saw in her what he did, I agreed he needed to marry this girl.
It was love. That death do us part, I will follow you, and believe in you, and ride with you, and build a life with you kind of TRUE LOVE you sometimes forget actually exists until you see it right in front of you.
Oh Dakota I am sorry she’s gone. I sang Petty’s ‘It’s Good to be King’ at The Historic Everett Theater thinking about those two with every note this late Fall at that Petty Tribute.
I’ll never forget the day, he brought her to meet me. He sat her down and said,
“I told you how much Dave loves history and other cultures, I know he has questions for you.”
Ream told me everything I asked her and more. Much more. She took me into her world in the seat of Wahabism. To be so close to power and to have so little power yourself, as woman. As a princess. It was a gift.
Ream was a gift to the world and while she is gone, this girl who dreamed about love watching Aladdin; who met her Prince charming, and was swept away in a land where every man can be King.
I hope they never make the movie, because they’ll never get it quite right. But when I was hiking, adventuring, talking Dakota’s ear off as he quietly listened and thought about his true destiny, I was just a colorful charming comic relief character in his fairy tale, and I am proud of it.
I am proud to know that Love is real, and you better cherish it boy. Because no kingdom lasts forever.
But when someone tells you this story, I promise on my life, it’s a true one.
RIP Ream.
Davin’s new song has become a global earworm and Caribbean dancehall hit. Listen here on Reggaeville: DAVIN MICHAEL STEDMAN & ANTHONY RED ROSE – FREE YOUR MIND FEAT. SLY & ROBBIE WITH LENKY MARSDEN. The video is now available on Youtube.
– Musician and writer Davin Michael Stedman has many ventures, such as the AMAZING blog, 100milesofmusic.com. In the spring of 2018 he spent weeks networking in and reporting from Kingston, Jamaica. He will return there soon for more recording. His single with British band Sherlock Soul is available here.
