'HE WAS MY HEART'

SIX MONTHS AFTER LOSING HER SON TO SUICIDE, CONNIE BOSS ALEXANDER LOOKS BACK AT THE MAN SHE KNEW AND FIERCELY LOVED 

- JULIE JORDAN

In quiet moments Connie Boss Alexander still finds herself picking up her phone to text her late son— beloved dancer, father of three and Ellen DeGeneres Show DJ and executive producer Stephen “tWitch” Boss. “Sometimes it feels like it was just yesterday, and then other times it feels like it’s been so long since I’ve seen him,” she says. Six months after Stephen’s death at age 40, Connie, 59, a city supervisor who now lives in Phoenix and has two other sons, grapples with his suicide but finds solace in her memories and her belief that she’ll see him again. “When I think about him, I try not to dwell on how he left this earth,” she says. “This is not totally the end. That is where my peace comes from.” Connie and Stephen were close as she raised him in Montgomery, Ala. 

As a kid, he was always smiling, always willing to try new things. If I had on music, he was dancing. He was the only male on his dance team in high school. That’s how dedicated and serious he was about it; he didn’t care that kids might be whispering. I was 18 when I had him, so as an adult, I think he really was able to see and appreciate some of the challenges I had as a young parent. And we talked about those things. I’m the classic boy mom, very protective. If we weren’t talking every day, we were texting. He was my heart. She last heard from Stephen the day before he died and had no inkling he was troubled.