Hi friends,
I hope you’re well.
For this letter I’m going to start with an ask and then end with a reflection.
My friend and colleague Cydney M. Edwards passed away yesterday. It was sudden, unexpected, and crushing. Cydney is my oldest friend.
Right now, Cydney’s Auntie Dell is planning her funeral service and will provide details once everything is finalized. In the meantime, her aunt is accepting direct donations towards her service.
Financial contributions can be sent to her Cash App, $DelMEC. If you don’t have cash app, you can follow up with Dara Davis directly to contribute.
Contact Info:
Dara Davis/773-681-6424/daradavis13@gmail.com
We appreciate your kindness and sympathy during this tough time!
Thank you!
In 1996 I met Cydney waiting on the bus to go to our new school. We went to school together and she became one of my very best friends. More than that we became family. When I was on the middle school basketball team, she was one of our team managers and was at every game. We did some of our first poetry slams together as teammates. We graduated from 8th grade together as 2 out of 23 students. When you have a class that small at worst you kind of end up cousins. And I am so lucky that she became my sibling.
We went to different high schools but stayed just as close, maybe even closer. We went to open mics and slam together all through those years and she consistently beat the hell out of me in damn near every slam in which I faced her, which was all the time. We went to her prom together and it was one of the best nights of my life. I’m so grateful she trusted me to hold that space with her. We had a ball.
At the end of high school, we were both deeply interested in the University of Wisconsin and in the First Wave scholarship program. Ultimately, I decided to go to Vanderbilt, but I still visited Madison and hung out with Cydney several times in Madison during college. After college we didn’t always see each other but whenever we did it was a gift. Last year we both got jobs at UW and the idea that we would be back living in the same city after spending our twenties in different places made Madison feel like it could be a place where my family could really make some roots, because now we would have family in town.
I am so broken by this one. I, like all of us, have dealt with a lot of loss and death in the last several years. Hell, even in the last few months and particularly the last few days death has been in our news, in our lives, in spirits. It is hard to have this much to grieve. It is unfathomable.
Cydney was a wonderful person. Everyone has the same stories about her being a deeply consistent and giving friend. It is staggering to realize the number of people she impacted in only 33 years. She was so many things. A devoted friend, a poetry slam champion, a debater, a performer, an excellent prom date, a First Wave scholar, a committed arts administrator, a Chicagoan, a South Sider, a Cubs fan (on this lone point we disagree), a Keller Eagle, a Morgan Park Mustang, a Wisconsin Badger.
Cydney and I are from the same neighborhood and the same city and we got to love each other across so much time and space and I’m just so hurt. The last time we checked in a few weeks ago Cydney said she was so excited to meet my baby girl. We were so excited to get back to Madison this spring and be with Cydney. I can’t believe she’s gone.
Rest In Peace to Cydney Miata Edwards.
I am so sorry-- what a gigantic loss.
What a gift you were given in this friend! My heart is with you, your friends and her family. Such a beautiful tribute.
Maria (formerly at Pitt Press)