“When you hear someone like Dr. Maya Angelou passed away, you have to deal with the fact that one day, you will die too. It’s that simple. If Maya can die, it’s done. You have to face your own mortality. You are reminded that no matter what you do; no matter how much you contribute to society; no matter how passionately you love or hate or fight for justice and all that, at the end, you and I are the same. We live. And then we die. But I still think it’s too bad that Dr. Maya Angelou had to. . .”
Die.
He didn’t say that word. Dr. Maya Angelou would never do that to us. She is formidable. She was phenomenal. Just. Plain. Phenomenal. Although I had done most of my ‘growing up’ before coming to the U.S., I feel like I grew up with this once-caged bird. She was a pioneer. The beginning (and the end) of a movement. Dr. Maya Angelou was majestic. Tall. Fierce. Her voice was like thunder at times and it would drop to a whisper. Soft but never fragile. “I got my doctorate the old-fashioned way,” I heard her say once. “I eeeeaaarrrnneedd it!” Dr. Maya Angelou earned the respect and love of millions worldwide. They say you don’t get to take anything with you to the other side. I pray she knew how much she was loved by people everywhere.
Leonie Hermantin said:
“Hard to put into words what Maya Angelou has meant to me since I have ‘consulted’ her Doctor Highness at so many stages, ‘etapes’ of my life. “As a tall, insecure Haitian, Black female immigrant teen, she taught me that being the ‘other’ was OK! She was a seasoned traveler who refused to accept the limitations of racial and cultural boundaries… She dared to defy, to explore and to redefine her reality! I consulted the Doctor sister again as a mother and more recently as I began this journey of middle agedom, I reread Mamma Angelou’s old poems, devoured essays found online and connected spiritually with the wise elder healer she had become. I have never met her, but did not really need to. Phenomenal, phenomenally phenomenal woman, I am, in your image Maya Mamma Angelou! -Leonie Hermantin
The Maya in our Hearts ~ Irmina Ulysse
News of Dr. Maya Angelou’s passing brought with it some sadness which was quickly burned away by a fire inside me that her courageous words help fuel so many moons ago. Like many of her fans, I am full of gratitude and joy for having witnessed and benefited from a life well gifted and lived. A soul’s purpose delivered fully and unabashedly. In Hindu, Maya can be expressed as the power that manifest the universe and creates the appearance of our phenomenal world. That power is love and love is in our hearts. Maya Angela is in our hearts and there she will live forever. She helped to manifest a universe where women could be proud of their unique hips and lips. Where women can dare to show all of their “stuff” even if we couldn’t name it, we could claim it. I am grateful for she taught so many of us how to see ourselves in our own eyes and make no apology for it. She was living poetry. While her experiences as a child and young woman would have crippled many, she showed us through courage, self determination, and self actualization we can all live with purpose. I am eternally grateful for this true Queen Mother, a living Maya that will remain eternally in our hearts. – Irmina Ulysse
“She’s a woman Strong like a rock Our symbol of freedom and humility Her voice echoes the suffering of all oppressed and poor The light that shines on you comes from her heart. Maya, Goddess of Love.” -Yanick Etienne
From poet and painter, Marilène Phipps-Kettlewell
“The bird has left her cage, but no matter–her wings are larger now, and still, in spite of the distance, her singing will never cease to be heard, and move us.”