Dear Editor,
Muriel ‘Babes’ Glasgow, woman of our soil, has left this earthly plane (November 23, 2013). For a moment, a bright star in this universe was diminished, for in her petite frame dwelt an enormous spirit.
Others will tell of Muriel the humanitarian; the Unicef Resident Represen-tative; the Bishops’ Girl; the entrepreneur; the promoter of a multitude of interesting issues and people; the creative being; the breast cancer survivor; the GT Girl Extraordinaire. She was all of that and more. However, I wish to celebrate the amazing sister-girlfriend she was to me and countless others.
Muriel, above all, was a truth teller and encourager of no small magnitude. She could strip you down and build you back up in a five-minute telephone conversation.
She was not the person you invited to your pity party. However, if you were excited about something ‒ anything at all ‒ she could always add to it the possibility of greatness and service to mankind.
To have spent time with Muriel was time spent challenged and encouraged to be a better human being.
We claimed one another as blood relatives and we went through the usual Guyanese game of “Where was your father born? What was his mother’s maiden name?
You related to the so-and-so from such-and-such a place?” She would say to me time and again “You’ve got to be my little relative!” I agreed wholeheartedly, and even though we’d found no evidence of such, there was just a mutual “knowing.”
If you did not know the meaning of the word bold, you just had to see Muriel in action. She pursued everything that interested her and was always open to learning something new from anyone at any time. A call from Muriel could result in your attending a free Pilates class in mid-town Manhattan, a confidence shared, accompanying her to the Sloan-Kettering hospital, seeing her on TV promoting raw foods, in Harlem attending a ‘street’ fashion show where the models were strutting her creations, a make-up session at Bloomingdale’s, researching the benefits of the moringa plant, etc. You never knew what adventure you were embarking on when you called her, but it was never going to be boring.
I thank the Creator for the countless memories I have of time spent with Muriel. She allowed me to be a part of her life, the challenge and the triumphs. She had a love for young people and surrounded herself… well they surrounded her like bees to nectar. She loved them and they loved her more!
There is a painting on the wall in her apartment that I loved and she would say to me every time I commented on it: “When you get your own home, you can have it.” It seemed like an impossible dream to me at the time, but she believed I would and I am happy that she lived to see it become a reality. I do not need a painting to remind me of Muriel.
The brilliant light that she was in this world was not extinguished upon her passing. She lived a life of such joy that her light sparked hundreds, maybe thousands of lights in the souls of those whom she touched so powerfully, while on this plane.
Rest in peace my beautiful sister-girlfriend of the curious, generous, bold, joyful soul.
Yours faithfully,
Cheryl E Noel
