As some of you may already know, our friend and mentor, Gladys Krigger Washington recently passed away.
Gladys was a preeminent matriarch of philanthropy in the South. Proudly and unapologetically Black, Gladys was dedicated to improving lives and empowering communities.
Her success was the community’s success, and it serves as a lasting testament to the enduring impact she continues to have.
As a part of Richmond Memorial Health Foundation, Gladys was instrumental in getting this organization to where we are today. She served as a consultant and advisor to both the RMHF Board and staff, an educator on critical issues, a trusted coach to our leadership, a bold advocate for health and racial equity, and the giver of the best hugs.
She filled these roles and shaped our journey with her experience and expertise as a result. She led the way in advocating for capacity building and general operating support for our partners, giving them the flexibility they needed to be responsive to community needs.
Her passing represents a loss for everyone who had the good fortune to know or work with her, this Foundation which she helped support and uplift, and for the communities that benefited directly from her work as a philanthropic pioneer.
In her poem “When Great Trees Fall,” Maya Angelou reminds us in her closing stanza that:
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.
Gladys was indeed a great tree in her community, and a great soul that we can never replace. But we can already feel the spaces filling with that soothing electrical vibration because we know that we are better, our community is better, because she existed.
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