Rev. Dr. Alex Gee texted me a photo today of a Community Unity Dinner he held in 1989 or 1990 as he was laying the groundwork for the Nehemiah Community Development Corporation. In that photo was the late Betty Franklin-Hammonds and I. It had to be when Betty was the CEO of the Madison Urban League and I was her VP. We became close friends due to those “foxhole days” as we fended off challenges as we laid a strong foundation for the Urban League. Betty was such a wonderful human being and I am so thankful to God for the role she played in shaping my life.

Betty would say “Gramling” — she always called her friends by their last name — “You have more talent than you know what to do with.” And she succeeded in pulling a lot of it out of me, not for her benefit, but for the benefit of the Urban League and beyond. Betty was one of those friends who are irreplaceable. I’m grateful that she was in my life — and in the City of Madison’s life — for as long as she was.

While Madison has grown to become a medium-sized community, I always contend that the Madison area is composed of many smaller “villages” of people. There are the people whom I see because of the Similar patterns of our lives. And then when I go to West Towne’s Food Court, I wonder who all of those people are. And I realize once again that they are part of Madison, but they don’t live in my “village.”