Kriol Icon Critically Ill

Myrna Manzanares

Belizean writer and advocate of the Creole culture, Myrna Manzanares lies critically ill in the Intensive Care Unit of the K.H.M.H.  Reports are that she suffered what doctors believe was a stroke last Wednesday. Interim President of the National Kriol Council, Marilyn Garvin, told News Five today that when Manzanares didn’t show up for an event that day, one of their members went looking for her and found her visibly unwell.  By the time an ambulance came and took her to the hospital, her oxygen level was already low and she was unconscious.  Garvin says there’s no one else who has worked for the preservation of the Creole culture quite like Manzanares.  And her bubbly personality goes beyond culture preservation, but kindness to others as well.

Marilyn Garvin

Marilyn Garvin, Interim President, National Kriol Council

“If anybody knows Myrna, she’s known for – this is what you call real, real Kriol. I mean, you go to her house, the way she interacts with people it’s like there’s no bar to her behaviour. I would take her some place and Myrna doesn’t know the individual but you would come across thinking that she knows you and you feel good at the end of the day. If you came out the house depressed, she makes you happy. She would just interact, play with the kids, make jokes, things like that. And no matter what she has, she shares. You understand. If she makes a little, she gives of what she has. If it’s the last money that she has, she would give to help somebody in need. That’s just her.”