And switching now to a celebration of life, at least, that's the way Myrna Manzanares would have wanted to frame it it.
The 75 year old Cultural icon passed away early this morning leaving a host of friends, students, and even acquaintances to mourn the passing of the Kriol's truest cultural champion and warrior.
She was one of the 10 founding members of the National Kriol Council, a cultural ambassador who spent her life promoting the Kriol culture both at home and abroad touching countless lives in the process.
This morning Cherisse Halsall reached out to her Kriol council family and they told us about the woman, the teacher, and the icon.
She was a cornerstone of the creole culture, a champion of her culture's language and artistic expressions.
When she mustered all the spirit she could 9 days ago to raise out of the couch and dance for us on the Sunup set, that, in an act, was Myrna Manzanares. She did not advocate for her culture; she engendered it; she did not try to keep it alive; it lived in her.
And the news of that joyful moment went all the way across the world, touching Myrna's friend Silvaana Udz in Taiwan. And while it was almost too much for her to bear Silvaana recounted their lives work in the preservation of creole culture.
Silvaana Udz, Linguist/ Cultural Activist
"My most thing was the language right, her thing was the culture and the language, beating the drum, the sambai, telling stories under the mango tree, the whole story telling part, the call and response, the link to Africa, the moon, I mean Myrna was my teacher and my friend."
"And if it was her last dollar, you mention that compassion, aye ah aye sometimes you want to just knock her with your love, Myrna you need it more than me pet."
And that generosity of spirit was perhaps one of the tenet of that old creole culture that Myrna had grown up in something she cultivated and represented with her own generosity of spirit.
Marilyn Garvin, Interim president, National Kriol Council
"I think with Myrna the whole culture itself, the creole culture, I mean she defines who is a creole person and what creole is all about."
"She really impacted the country and everybody she came in contact with, she helped them, she boosted them, she educated them about the culture. I mean from simple things like cut up roots and Wangla and things like that, Myrna is gonna talk about that."
Hon. Patrick Faber, UDP leader
"It is Artist Emeritus Myrna Manzanarez, who all Belizeans know to be the champion of the Kriol language, or one of the main champions of the Kriol language, a storyteller, a poet, and somebody who we've long recognized - so happens that Myrna is UDP, but that is neither here nor there. She is one of Belize's greatest talents. Myrna was in a situation financially with her home. All Belize now knows that the National Institute of Culture embarked on an initiative that we deem certain artists to be artists emeritus. I think that Lord Rhaburn is one of those artists. Myrna Manzanarez was also one of them."
And when one assesses the life of Myrna Manzanares it won't be the accolades she received or the tributes accorded to her name, it will be the imprint on the lives she infused with cultural awareness:
Sylvanna Udz, Linguist/ Cultural Activist
"Her biggest thing was to get people to do little things, every day little things like Jump to the Sambai beat, understand what is Sambai, the fire Sambai."
"But her biggest thing is that no matter what a pikni must know they're culture and must know the beat, the beat of the culture. Anytime you see Myrna its because she had her drum with her and she was never to tired. Sometime you would meet Myrna on the roadside begging for a ride to talk at a school, any school ask, and I said Myrna at least have them pay for your passage no man, lord. So we tried to take her when we could. Issues with her car and what not, but she would get out a road side and beg ride, she would say that little school fireburn only has 34 pikni and you going all the way to Orange Walk to a school, she would say If one pikni get the beat, it's one more pikni that."
Kashmir Bernard Claire, Secretary, Creole Council
"To me Myrna was such a great example of a genuine person, like everything I can recall-MBE the same year that she was named woman of the year that year as well. And so my view is that just about everybody that you turn to can tell you about Myrna Manzanares."
And ultimately how did Myrna Manzanares live her life?
Arlette Woods Claire, Creole Council
"To the fullest, to the fullest, normally around Christmas we would go and visit Miss Myrna, I wah get me cashew wine, mi berries wine all the way from "Malantee" but her books will live on, the creole dictionary will live on, how to read and write creole, wer will keep it going in her memory and like I said her memory will not just be a memory. We will make sure we have something to do maybe on her birthday because she loved celebrations and like right now, we would have already started to Bram."
"As that drum beat then she would next day, aye mi foot swell, next day mi foot swell. But Myrna you over did it. When you hear that drum and its true, because even me when I have pain and you hear that drum, no care how the pain hits you and that drum start beat, you get up and that sambai, you don't feel anything."
Sylvanna Udz, Linguist/ Cultural Activist
"You know the creole saying one one okro full basket, that's a creole saying and the creole council adopted it, that came from Myrna because, Myrna said we can't solve everything, one little thing at a time. If we touch one, that one will touch a next one, a next one and that was her philosophy I would say and one, one okro full basket. When some people were suggesting and you always get different opinions and a new crowd come in and a few people come in and they say this sounds like we can't get ahead too fast, one, one okro, we need to move faster than that and get projects - good idea and kudos to that, but Myrna put down her foot and say one, one okro, the one could be big, it could be small, but one thing at a time."
Manzanares had a stroke and was found unresponsive in her home last week Wednesday morning. She remained hospitalized in the intensive care unit for 6 days before she passed around 1:30 am this morning. No funeral arrangements have been announced.
