Her mother was brutally murdered by her brother-in-law on the same releasing day(17th March 99) of her 12th single
"Respect the Power of Love". Namie cancelled promotion for this single and flew to Okinawa to identify her mother's body.
Since then she had never returned to her hometown Okinawa, until late 2006 on her Live Style Tour 2006, she's came back to perform after many years & cried alot when performing "NEVER END" there. Not to mention the lyric of the song itself is very touching,
NEVER END lyric
That's why I always respect the power of Namie, she's such a strong woman.