This story originally appeared on People.
Forty-three years after she was last in her hometown of Gary, Indiana, Janet Jackson returned for the first time to the tiny white-sided house she and the rest of her famous family called home.
“When I saw the house … I just started crying,” she said Friday, according to the Northwest Indiana Times. “Me and my family are so blessed. I’m so thankful.”
Accompanied by brother Randy Jackson, Janet, 51, made the trip to Gary after a stop on her State of the World tour at the Allstate Arena near Chicago.
Taraji P. Henson, who films Empire in Chicago, posted a video as she was getting ready to attend the show.
“I can’t wait to see you,” said Henson, who plays Cookie Lyon on the hit show. “I’m going to scream ’til I’m hoarse. Cookie ain’t going to have no voice next Wednesday.”
Janet, the youngest of the famous Jackson family, lived with Michael Jackson, Randy and their six other siblings in the two-bedroom, one-story home at 2300 Jackson Street in Gary when the clan were children. The family moved out of the home when Janet was about 2 or 3 years old, she said.
“The last time I was here I was 8 years old,” Janet said.
Janet also stopped at the former Roosevelt High School (now named Theodore Roosevelt College and Career Academy), where her brother Jackie and sister Rebbie attended, and told students gathered for the visit she felt grateful to have been able to have a child at age 50. She and estranged husband Wissam Al Mana welcomed baby Eissa in January. The couple has since announced that they are divorcing.
“Every doctor told me it wasn’t possible,” she told students, according to the Northwest Times. “But I’ve got a beautiful, healthy son. He’ll be 10 months old.”
