I awoke this morning to an email from dear friend David in Liberia – Ma Frances passed yesterday Wednesday, August 13, 2015 at the age of 96. I have loved Ma Frances since the moment I met her nine years ago this summer in Los Angeles. She is love – and my role model – I want to be just like her.
I wrote about her in my first book GRATITUDE:
Ma Frances just celebrated her 94th birthday. She lives in Liberia where the average life expectancy is half that age. How is this possible?? She is pure love. It is so wonderfully easy to see the Divine in Ma Frances as she so easily sees the Divine in all beings. She is my inspiration.
We all need heroes. I have been blessed this lifetime to have been connected to many inspiring women, older women who I have so admired and appreciated. The biological women in my family of birth were not role models for me. For the most, they modeled worry and fear, a way of being which I knew at an early age was not how I wanted to live.
Ma Frances is my super hero. Her life story is filled with surprises. She left her first husband soon after their marriage as he expected her to stay home and take care of the children and the home, nothing more. That did not work for her. She married again and raised her children in the small village of Lexington in eastern Sinoe County, a community of few hundred people where she was the community teacher for 40 years. Her belief and trust in God has pervaded everything in her life; deep unwavering faith.
And then:
I am so grateful for Ma Frances and her presence in my life and in this world. I want to grow up and be just like her – total love, total peace, total trust, total service despite living in a totally wrecked country with no postman and no green salads. After returning to Liberia from years in America as a refuge, Ma Frances misses these two favorite things the most.
I am beyond grateful for this amazing role model in my life – tremendous love and great gratitude to you Ma Frances.
P.S. On Thanksgiving Day in America in 2013, I spent several hours with Ma Frances at her home in Monrovia, Liberia – first with her at her breakfast table and then in comfy chairs in the living room. She read this story about her from my computer without needing glasses and then the one about her daughter Emily. She is happy to be in my book and amazed by the love she has in her life, “Plenty-O” as she says in Liberian English with a smile.
I learned that her name is really spelled Francess with an emphasis on the “cess” – I said, “As in princess!” Her Pa named her and so loved her.
We talked about her first 94 years, her up-coming 95th birthday, and both marveled at the fact she is still alive. I said, “It is because you are pure love and give it to everyone.” And she replied, “I do love everyone.” I mentioned a spiritual book I had just read which speaks of the levels of love from love that comes from the lower chakra energy centers and is all about self-gratification to the higher evolved love which extends out to all beings which is where Ma Frances lives. She smiled softly.
We held hands for a long time in silence before she finally agreed to a nap.
This is the greatest Thanksgiving Day of my life ever Ma Frances – thank you – I love you more than words can say.
With tremendous love and appreciation for our dear connection – I love you Ma Frances. I am holding you in my heart and prayers forever – and look forward to seeing you again… love from your other daughter ~ Deborah
Ma Frances just celebrated her 94th birthday. She lives in Liberia where the average life expectancy is half that age. How is this possible?? She is pure love. It is so wonderfully easy to see the Divine in Ma Frances as she so easily sees the Divine in all beings. She is my inspiration.
We all need heroes. I have been blessed this lifetime to have been connected to many inspiring women, older women who I have so admired and appreciated. The biological women in my family of birth were not role models for me. For the most, they modeled worry and fear, a way of being which I knew at an early age was not how I wanted to live.
Ma Frances is my super hero. Her life story is filled with surprises. She left her first husband soon after their marriage as he expected her to stay home and take care of the children and the home, nothing more. That did not work for her. She married again and raised her children in the small village of Lexington in eastern Sinoe County, a community of few hundred people where she was the community teacher for 40 years. Her belief and trust in God has pervaded everything in her life; deep unwavering faith.
And then:
I am so grateful for Ma Frances and her presence in my life and in this world. I want to grow up and be just like her – total love, total peace, total trust, total service despite living in a totally wrecked country with no postman and no green salads. After returning to Liberia from years in America as a refuge, Ma Frances misses these two favorite things the most.
I am beyond grateful for this amazing role model in my life – tremendous love and great gratitude to you Ma Frances.
P.S. On Thanksgiving Day in America in 2013, I spent several hours with Ma Frances at her home in Monrovia, Liberia – first with her at her breakfast table and then in comfy chairs in the living room. She read this story about her from my computer without needing glasses and then the one about her daughter Emily. She is happy to be in my book and amazed by the love she has in her life, “Plenty-O” as she says in Liberian English with a smile.
I learned that her name is really spelled Francess with an emphasis on the “cess” – I said, “As in princess!” Her Pa named her and so loved her.
We talked about her first 94 years, her up-coming 95th birthday, and both marveled at the fact she is still alive. I said, “It is because you are pure love and give it to everyone.” And she replied, “I do love everyone.” I mentioned a spiritual book I had just read which speaks of the levels of love from love that comes from the lower chakra energy centers and is all about self-gratification to the higher evolved love which extends out to all beings which is where Ma Frances lives. She smiled softly.
We held hands for a long time in silence before she finally agreed to a nap.
This is the greatest Thanksgiving Day of my life ever Ma Frances – thank you – I love you more than words can say.
With tremendous love and appreciation for our dear connection – I love you Ma Frances. I am holding you in my heart and prayers forever – and look forward to seeing you again… love from your other daughter ~ Deborah
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