Saying Goodbye to a Good Friend

Sadly, we said goodbye this week to one of our longtime friends, Andre “Soulja” Smith (seen in sunglasses above). He passed away a couple of weeks ago, and was buried yesterday at Lakeside Memorial Gardens in Palmetto, Georgia.

Soulja was part of the Lazarus OG, first connecting with us back in 2007 and 2008. Originally from New Jersey, he had lived in Atlanta a long time. In fact, he was so well known and respected on the street that he was also known as “The Mayor.”

Soulja was family to us, and we were family to him. Even after he found housing, he attended most all of our events through the years to enjoy the festivities and quality time with our community. It was also common for him to pull up on his bike in the evenings to hang out with our weekly teams downtown in Atlanta. We can still hear his strong, deep voice and signature upbeat greeting, “What’s up?” when we’d see him.

Soulja was loyal to those he was close with, including all of us with Lazarus. When he was with us, if anyone we met with started getting loud or agitated, he was quick to step in, talk with them, and get things calmed down. He always had our backs, and he knew we always had his.

These last two months we walked closely with him as he dealt with increasing health issues and hospital visits, making sure he didn’t have to go through those challenges alone.

We are thankful for his friendship, and our lives are better because of him.

You’ll be missed, good friend.