NYAPRS Note: Last week, our most beloved Celia Brown passed away. Celia will always be one of the greatest pioneers and people our movement will ever know and, accordingly, a number of Celia’s closest friends are joining with NYAPRS and the NYAPRS Cultural Competence Committee to host a special zoom event this coming Thursday December 22 from 4-6 pm EST, to give time for people to share their love, gratitude and loss with each other. Jonathan Edwards and Taina Lang will be facilitating the discussion. Please come to share, either verbally or via chat, your feelings with your community.
Click here https://zoom.us/meeting/register/tJAsf-iprjsjGNVilipsBJB6tbe2jg-E4TBi!
Some people are asking what can we do. Send your love through the link below.
https://donate.stripe.com/7sIbLBfX819s0jSdQQ
The Brown family wants to keep the dream alive.
Register at https://zoom.us/meeting/register/tJAsf-iprjsjGNVilipsBJB6tbe2jg-E4TBi!
Here’s a very moving message from Celia’s sister Jocelyn
On Sunday, December 11th, My Big Sis Celia transitioned and I miss her already. The last few days I have been numb. The last time Celia was strong enough to converse with me was last Thursday. I showed her my shiny red sneakers and told her that I wore them to bring her a bit of Christmas cheer. She smiled and then laughed. While I curled up beside her, we talked, and instead of complaining about her pain, she shifted the conversation, asking me about my day. She didn’t have a selfish bone in her body. When she found out about her illness, she told us not to be concerned, that she would be alright. It was her choice to keep it under wraps. Her positive mindset was that the tumor would dissipate. Some might be angry and think our silence was a bad move. Take a minute to put yourself in her shoes. Celia was a pillar of strength and while many of her constituents depended on her to lead, to make power moves and to advocate for the disenfranchised, her physical state was “itty-bitty” in the grand scheme of things. She stayed on course and continued to help, support, lobby and protest injustices in the mental health field. Showing any weakness was out of the question. She shielded herself from pity parties and emotional crutches.
I know that there are a lot of tributes about how she advocated for the mental health community. Thank you all for the outpouring of how she touched your lives, and also the prayers and well wishes to the Brown family. We feel your love as we canvas down the posts on FB honoring the Giant she was. I knew her as my big sister and friend. When my Mom was in the hospital, she went to her own treatments and would still visit her, often times she was sick herself. This never stopped her. She put others before herself many times.
Her work ethic was inherited from our parents. Celia worked up until a few weeks ago enduring pain all the while, not allowing it to defeat her. I often think about how Celia travelled to conferences, worked a full time job, served on several committees, and organized projects, rallied for the mental health community and a mix of other important responsibilities, for the last two and half years that she battled this nasty disease. Such a Warrior Queen. She was so humble that she didn’t ever expect recognition or accolades for anything. She just continued to line up projects that would uplift and support. Makes me think of the book my Mom used to read to us – The Little Engine That Could. Non-stop!! That was Celia.
Going back to when her mental health struggle began. My first thought was we’re gonna have to take care of Cel forever, might as well get used to it. Boy, did she prove me and everybody else wrong. She’s been taking care of not only her family, but anyone who was in need of her understanding, love, support and guidance. It is the assumption that someone who suffers from mental health issues is dysfunctional, handicapped and unable to fend for themselves. Celia has broken all barriers and is proof positive that these are stigmas she’s fought to overcome. Her 360 degree turn around is nothing short of remarkable. She’s risen above all obstacles and faced her fears. Celia has transitioned from her stay at Bronx State Psychiatric Center, to the Pibly Residential Center to a half-way house, to her recovery and journey to wellness and finally her stead as a Pioneer of the Peer Specialist Projects. This position developed into a Civil Service Title, a national accredited certification for peer support who have to be trained and pass a test to be considered for this paid position. Through the years, she’s been promoted to various roles as an Advocate for mental health nationally and internationally. She would walk in various mental health facilities not as a consumer, but of one who helps consumers everywhere on their journey to recovery – Leading by Example. She’s an ICON and an example of pulling herself up by her boot straps.
I wish I could just bring you back just…just for the rest of my life, dammit. Gone way too soon. This is the sentiment of practically all the people who I spoke to the last couple of days. But since I can’t bring you back, I promise you – your name, Celia Elise Brown, will live on always and forever. The family has PLANS.
I will remember Celia every time I hear an old school R&B song from back in the day blaring from my car radio – Luther Vandross, Stevie Wonder, Earth Wind and Fire, The Commodores, Teddy Pendergrass, Michael Jackson, Minnie Riperton, Phoebe Snow, The Isley Brothers. I know I’m leaving some out. I will sing the lyrics word for word and think of you. I will also remember your laugh. I will remember your smile. I will remember your straightforward, no-nonsense “Check” when somebody said something crazy that you didn’t like. I will remember your hugs. I will remember how the phone would be glued to your ear because you had to stay connected to your community. I will remember how wherever you went, you made a lasting impression. Everyone loved Celia Brown.
Celia held the baton Dad handed us to complete his dream to build a homestay and Educational Center. A two-ply goal, a place of education and economic empowerment for the youth of Ghana. But also a place where people from the US can stay and visit the culture and learn the traditions of Africa within the Dutch Commenda village – in close proximity between the Elmina Castle and Cape Coast slave dungeons. Dad’s dream was all about educating the youth, and promoting, financing and teaching them history. Celia’s extension to the dream was inclusive of family and friends sharing in the experience of the tour of the Castles and the Door of No Return, including the place where millions of our ancestors were tormented. Our Ghanaian family can introduce their African lifestyle to all the visitors who come to the Motherland from other parts of the world. Together we can embrace the beauty of the landscape we’ve witnessed. And connect with our people and the youth in the neighboring villages, while they experience the wealth of their history using Bill Brown’s dream as the cornerstone positioned by the ocean in all its glory. Cel became the architect, the foreman (at times), the financier and held down the construction with a penny and a vision. At this point, the Bill Brown’s dream is Celia Brown’s dream too, a legacy deferred. The Brown
Celia is my SHERO, my Cape Crusader and deserves a send-off that is bigger than just a regular Home-going service. There will be two ceremonies. One ceremony will be in Ghana, West Africa in the beginning of April where her ashes will live in the waters of our Ancestors. And the other service will take place in New York in February. Celia needs to be remembered for her life’s work, including all the people she’s touched along the way. The Brown family is planning a Memorial Service during Black History Month, as Celia joins her counterparts a time set aside to celebrate and honor historical leaders past and present. The date and time will be announced after the holidays. In the meantime, my family is putting together a documentary of the Celia’s life journey leading up to her accomplishments as the pioneer of the Peer Specialist Project and beyond which has helped thousands of peer supports, psychiatric survivors and persons with disabilities on their way to full recovery. Join our venture by filling out the Documentary Google Link below – share your part of Celia’s beginning, middle and life beyond “Herstory”.
Celia Brown’s Documentary Info Link
https://forms.gle/XhUN2YohmYjJxmyk9
Some people are asking what can we do.
Send your love through the link below: https://donate.stripe.com/7sIbLBfX819s0jSdQQ
The Brown family wants to keep the dream alive.
Jocelyn and Celia Brown