Just over a month after actor Chadwick Boseman’s tragic passing, his brothers Kevin and Derrick are opening up about his final days.
The actor passed away at the age of 43 from colon cancer, which he was diagnosed within 2016 but it was never publicly disclosed.
Kevin Boseman, 48, and Derrick Boseman, 54, opened up to the New York Times about their brother’s last day, revealing that he was ready for his four-year battle with cancer to be over.
Derrick, a pastor who now lives in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, said Chadwick told him the day before he died that he was ready to go.
Chadwick told his brother, ‘Man, I’m in the fourth quarter, and I need you to get me out of the game.’
While his brother asked what it meant, he realized that he was ready for his fight to be over.
‘When he told me that, I changed my prayer from, ‘God heal him, God save him,’ to ‘God, let your will be done,” Pastor Boseman said.
‘And the next day he passed away,’ the pastor added of his brother’s death on August 29.
While the actor went by his full name of Chadwick Boseman, friends and others closest to him knew him simply as Chad.
‘I have been trying to remember Chad and not Chadwick,’ Kevin Boseman said. ‘And there’s just been a lot of Chadwick in the air.’
Kevin, who is a successful actor, director and writer in his own right, added that when someone becomes a celebrity, ‘You have to start sharing that person with the world; I always endeavored to just treat him like my brother.’
Derrick added that Chad was always artistically gifted, adding he could ‘sit and draw anyone’ from a very young age.
‘Chad was gifted,’ Pastor Boseman said. ‘He’s probably the most gifted person I’ve ever met.’
Chadwick always wanted to work in the arts, but he originally wanted to be a writer and director before he was encouraged to start acting while at Howard University.
‘A lot of people think making it means becoming an A-list movie star,’ Kevin said. ‘I didn’t force that. I just knew that if Chad wanted to work in the arts, he would find a way and take care of himself.’
