Black History Today: Yalonda Gill-Masundire, an angel amoung us
/Black History Today, created by Marcus Harden in honor of Black History Month, pays tribute to the living legacy of Black history in our community and beyond, and recognizes the people actively shaping the future.
“We are travelers on a cosmic journey, stardust, swirling and dancing in the eddies and whirlpools of infinity. Life is eternal. We have stopped for a moment to encounter each other, to meet, to love, to share. This is a precious moment. It is a little parenthesis in eternity.”
- Paulo Coelho, from “The Alchemist”
By Marcus Harden
The term “Ephemeral Eternal,” meaning to last a very short time but with an essence that lives on forever, was introduced to me during a transformative art experience in New Orleans by artist Brandan 'Bmike' Odums.
Chronos, the term for time being measured by quality rather than its length, perfectly encapsulates the existence and spirit of Yalonda Gill-Masundire.
To know Yalonda is to know you’re in the presence of high-quality greatness, touched by the epitome of grace, class, intelligence and a beauty that permeates from her being.
Yalonda is an activist for all that is right. Whether that be her passion lobbying for justice in Olympia, social activistism for the rights of the poor, or maybe her greatest passion: advocating for children through her efforts locally and internationally through education and the Boys and Girls Club of America.
Hers is the rarest gift of sowing seed, watering and harvesting all without requiring any recognition or needing to be seen or named. She is the embodiment of the wind beneath so many wings, an angelic gardener in the ecosystem of progress.
Personally, Yalonda has shown what class personified truly looks like when under duress. They say you don’t fully know who you are until your character is tested, and time and time again I have witnessed Yalonda transcend and redefine the limits of courage under fire.
On June 27, 2019, Yalonda’s physical form left us, leaving behind her incredible husband, Peter, and her family, and while I made the promise to myself that in our Black History Today Series we would honor those still with us with their flowers, there was indeed a higher calling for Yalonda’s presence in another place.
However, she is written in the present tense as she is very much with all of us. Yalonda’s spirit fills every room that she ever graced and lives deep inside of the fabric woven into those who seek to be voices for the voiceless and champions for the unseen.
For those who know her, she truly is an angel who graced us with her time, talent and treasure. And we are richer for it.
Yalonda Gill-Masundire is ephemeral eternal. Yalonda Gill-Masundire is an angel among us. Yalonda Gill-Masundire is Black History Today!
