Circa 2002: This is how I started my application letter; To whom it may concern: I may not have a PHD and neither do I reside in North America or Western Europe, however……and I went ahead and stated my capabilities for the Research Program at hand.
I was selected!
Shocking to me as it was, the clear qualifications hurdles appended to the call did not stop me from clinching the nomination. I learnt a tough lesson then about “shooting down my chances” but that is a story for another day.
17 years later today, I am staring at the smiling face of the Lady who was my contact point and clearly a guiding angel at the time: Dr. Marsha Hanen.
I never met her in person…and I never will. However, I am almost certain she was a definitive point in my life...because she came to me in my thoughts, two days ago, on Saturday the 27th. Through the night as I wrapped up the day, I said to myself; “I should look for Dr. Hanen’s email address and re-start conversations. It would be great to re-connect”. That was Saturday.
So today, I Google-searched her name, only to learn that Dr. Marsha Hanen, a highly acclaimed Canadian Academician, University Professor and Ethics Coach has passed on.
Dr. Hanen died on Saturday April 13th 2019… exactly two weeks ahead of the thoughts about her that invaded my mind many years since our first encounter! To my people, this kind of coincidence is not "ordinary". Those who have gone to rest do not just appear in your thoughts without meaning. There is always a reason. Now thinking about it, I know for a fact that Dr. Hanen was messaging me; urging me on; challenging me like she always used to but mostly, ENCOURAGING me. In reflection and because my Africanness captures the beauty of our communication with those who have slipped-away, I know that she is prompting me to look back – to reflect on the impact of human connections , even of chance connections such as what we had .
My novice research report of 2002/3; “The Injustices of Justice” – A case of Torture & Police Brutality in Kenya, is what I may call a milestone achievement. It was the key that opened for me the doors to inquisitive social transformation and inculcated in me the hunger for social justice. It changed my life. Dr.Hanen had so much to do with this change! Our email communications with her were heavy with Mentorship from her side; Her urge was always gentle but focused; she was available to a young erratic enthusiast thousands of kilometers away who should not even have gotten the chance in the first place! She believed I could do great things - I believed I could, because she believed i could! As a young upbeat journalist and human rights activist then, I wanted so desperately to court social transformation for Justice and equality - I still do. I wanted to change the world..even for one person - I still do. Dr. Hanen made me understand that I could. Now looking back, a lot of what i have done and continue to do is actually echoed in the Mentorship of that time in the past with Dr. Hanen. It is clear to me that this period of my life is when clarity of purpose set in.
Dr. Hanen gave me the gift of HOPE.
Today I pen these lines alongside the mournful odes from the communities of #Alberta #Calgary, and from the entire #Canada and beyond and know for a fact that I became who I am because Dr. Marsha Hanen had something to do with it ever since that time 17 years ago when I was selected for a research project against all stipulated qualifications.
To her daughters Amy and Sharon and the entire extended family, I stretch out my embrace of consolation and THANK YOU on behalf of those of us who benefited from interactions with your Mom. She was a great woman. Thank you for sharing her with the wide vast world in diverse aspects of her professional life. We are grateful for her time - we always will be. I urge you to understand as we do from this part of the world that Dr. Marsha Hanen is immortalized in our very lives! ; As long as we live, they too will live, for they are now a part of us as we remember them!
THANK YOU my mentor from so far away. THANK YOU for believing in my abilities even when I was not aware of them! THANK YOU simply for your humanity. THANK YOU.
Rest in Peace Dr. Masha Hanen.
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