...and you still rise.

 

I want to say thank you today.  

For the words you gave us.  

The inspiration you filled into our lives.  

For showing us that we can persevere by your life alone.  

Today I want to tell you that you made us believe in ourselves.  You gave us words that we could count on.  Your prose was strong and mighty - filled with words only someone who was once broken could write.  

Each letter you strung together with another one...putting them altogether and filling those pages with words of love, inspiration, truth, encouragement...each time you recited those words, it filled us with power.  

You helped us be filled with the knowledge that we could do anything.  We could go through anything and we would get through it.  You taught us that it didn't matter the circumstance, we would pull through.  Our smiles, our attitude toward life, the way we were with other people - you made sure your words portrayed how our lives should be to be happy.

 

  For this, I thank you.  

I thank you for the quotes I've read since I was a teenager.  I am grateful for the books you wrote about your life.  I thank you for writing the hard things and showing me through your works that I could do the same.  You have been my inspiration and I thank you. I am thankful that you are leaving this legacy so that you could live on, generation to generation.  My daughter will read your words.  My granddaughters and great-granddaughters will feel the strength you give them as you did for me.

Your words have always given me strength.  Your faith has given me hope.  Your example got me through some hard times in life.  Your words have often been the ones I've sent to people to uplift them.  

Thank you for sharing this life with us.  

You will be missed, but you have left us with something that no other could do.

Your words.

Maya Angelou

1928-2014

Poet. Educator. Author. Playwright. Activist. Historian. Producer.  Actor. Director. 

But most importantly...Phenomenal Woman.