Marvalene Franklin

Shortly after high school she joined some of her siblings in California and worked for the county. For 44 years she shared life’s journey with her daughter until her body took her as far as it could go and she had to get out and walk the rest of the way.

She dedicated her life to growing her relationship with God Yahweh. She believed she was a spirit having an earthly experience. She was direct and absolute, but always willing to learn, grow, and apologize when needed. She was private but not timid. She was sacrificing but also valued the importance of keeping her cup full, so she had an overflow for others. Her heart for people was enormous and she was always willing to help if she could. The world was a better place because she existed in it, because she challenged others to attain the best version of themselves, expand their knowledge, wisdom, and understanding.

For her, love was a verb – actions that always give the advantage. May we continue this work in her honor and in doing so expand her heritage and legacy.

“When great souls die, the air around us becomes light, rare, sterile.

We breathe, briefly.

Our eyes, briefly, see with a hurtful clarity.

Our memory, suddenly sharpened, examines, gnaws on kind words unsaid, promised walks never taken.

Great souls die and our reality, bound to them, takes leave of us.

Our souls dependent upon their nurture, now shrink, wizened.

Our minds, formed and informed by their radiance, fall away.

We are not so much maddened as reduced to the unutterable ignorance of dark, cold caves.

And when great souls die, after a period peace blooms, slowly and always irregularly.

Spaces fill with a kind of soothing electric vibration.

Our senses, restored, never to be the same, whisper to us.

They existed.

They existed.

We can be.

Be and be better.

For they existed.”

-Maya Angelou