Aretha Franklin flourished in the public eye, but that doesn’t mean her entire life was on display. The “Queen of Soul” made it a point to keep her personal and professional lives completely separate, rarely sharing details about her life outside of the music industry.
So, when the cancer rumors began circulating years ago, you know how she responded. She didn’t give anyone any information about her health; not even her family members. While most people have assumed her reasoning was simply for privacy purposes, her niece has revealed the real reason why she opted to keep things so private.
Her Pancreatic Cancer Battle:
All of the tributes at Aretha’s televised funeral were absolutely beautiful, but one person’s statement stood out, due to the interesting message she delivered.
Aretha Franklin’s niece, Cristal Franklin, recently spoke with Detroit’s WDIV ahead of the funeral service and she’s opened up about the last years of her aunt’s life, specifically her quiet battle with pancreatic cancer.
“She wanted to continue to work. She wanted to continue to be the queen,” Cristal said in a chat at her aunt’s childhood home. “She wanted to continue to push. She wanted to continue to be an artist. She didn’t want people to think, ‘Oh, she’s dying and this is going to be the end and we’re never going to have her again.’”
Handling the Diagnosis:
Cristal went on to share how her aunt reacted to the cancer diagnosis. Although the cancer rumors date back as far as 2010, it is still unclear when she received the diagnosis. Cristal has admitted that Aretha was initially in denial about her sickness. However, she quickly bounced back from that, opting to fight for her life. That’s when she began making notable changes to her diet, while incorporating exercise.
Years after those rumors, there were others, but Aretha appeared to have totally bounced back. But sadly, Cristal revealed that changed with her very last doctor’s appointment.
“For awhile it was denial,” she said. “Then it was proactive activity: Eating better, working out, that kind of thing. But once it became a reality and she went to that last doctor’s appointment and they said there was nothing else they could do for her, it wasn’t good.”
Despite the grim prognosis, Cristal said that she still tried to keep her ailing aunt’s spirits up as the battle became harder for her to fight.
“We were having a conversation and we were talking about my daughter graduating from Howard [University] this year, and she just bust out in tears,” she said. “And it was so hard for me not to cry, but I got to be strong enough to tell her, ‘Oh, auntie you’re going to be there. You’re going to be singing at the graduation like you did at my graduation.’”
A Devastating Loss:
Although Aretha Franklin was suffering from a terminal illness, that never makes the loss any easier. The singer’s family is no different. Regardless of her ailing health, the loss is still devastating. Cristal revealed the family has opted to use humor as a coping mechanism for grief.
“I’m a kill her for dying,” Cristal quipped. “Didn’t nobody tell her to die on us! I could kill her for this.”
But it still doesn’t change the fact that she’s really gone. “I’m not sure how I’m going to react when I walk down the aisles of Greater Grace [Church],” she said. “I’m hoping I can keep it together for the sake of my mother and my daughter, but I’m just not sure. I’m not ready, honestly, to see my auntie in a casket.”
Prayers up for the Franklin family as they grieve the loss of the beloved, Aretha Franklin.
