Dear John,

As you probably know, we lost our good friend and forever hero Cecile Richards on January 20th of this year.

Though she lived in New York for the last long while, from where she heroically led Planned Parenthood through some of its greatest challenges, her heart always remained in Texas. And so it was in Austin that her family and friends held a memorial service for her this past weekend.

I flew up from El Paso Saturday morning and was happy to see a packed house full of folks who’ve been in the fight from the early days of Ann Richards’ career, to Cecile’s labor organizing days in East Texas, to her more recent work with Planned Parenthood and her political action group Supermajority.

I also saw alumni from our 2022 governor’s race, where Cecile served as our national finance chair. She had used her national profile to help us raise the support we needed to give Texans a fighting chance against a governor who had outlawed abortion and was seeking to remove other lifesaving healthcare and freedoms from our state.

^{Standing with Cecile and Lucie Baines Johnson in 2022}

Texas AFL-CIO President Rick Levy shared stories about Cecile and husband Kirk’s Tyler, Texas home being the headquarters for the “booming” East Texas progressive movement as the young couple focused on organizing workers in a part of the state that too often went overlooked. Wendy Davis movingly recalled Cecile’s role in her historic 13-hour filibuster to preserve abortion access in Texas in 2013.

Others spoke about Cecile’s tireless efforts on behalf of her mother’s gubernatorial campaigns, her love for her kids and grandkids, her incredible sense of humor. What an amazing soul!

And finally, her husband Kirk Adams talked about his love for Cecile, their time in New Orleans together early in their marriage, their lives spent fighting for justice and freedom — especially for the most vulnerable — and the fighting spirit that Cecile brought to everything she did.

He said that if each of us approaches the fight in front of us with that same spirit then Cecile will live forever.

At that, the Preservation Hall band — joined by young musicians from the Ann Richards school — led us in a second line parade out into the beautiful and warm Austin evening, each of us thinking about what we could do to meet this moment like Cecile would want us to.

Beto

In memory of Cecile, please consider splitting a donation with Planned Parenthood Texas Votes.