Ronnie Marshall's Memorial Service 

Saturday, February 26, 2022 at Asbury Church in Raleigh

Good afternoon!  My name is Philip Woodward, and Ronnie and I were close friends.  I could speak about him for an hour, but I will try to keep my remarks to five minutes.  I met Ronnie in October 2009 shortly after his 30^th birthday.  I was looking for someone to accompany me on ACCESS North Carolina tourist site visits, and Karen Murphy at Disability Rights North Carolina recommended Ronnie, So, I picked him up one afternoon and took him to Durham to spend a couple of hours getting a V.I.P. tour of the Durham Performing Arts Center and the Durham Bulls Athletic Park to survey their accessibility to people with disabilities.  Yes, Ronnie was a very important person, and he loved that visit!  It was my belated 30^th birthday gift to him. 

Ronnie accompanied me on many tourist site visits to other places such as the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Gardens and the NC State basketball locker-room at the RBC Center here in Raleigh.  He served on an ACCESS North Carolina Workgroup with me, joined the Raleigh Mayor’s Committee for Persons with Disabilities, and in 2020 was appointed by Governor Roy Cooper to become a member of the North Carolina Council on Developmental Disabilities, where I work.  He was not shy about advocating for himself and telling me and other government officials or employees about the accessibility barriers that he faced in his life. 

I’ll say it again.  Ronnie was not shy.  He talked to anyone he could.  He laughed as heartily as he wanted to.  He welcomed any opportunity to go out to lunch or dinner or join a party.  My family and I enjoyed inviting him over to our house to celebrate holidays such as Memorial Day and the Fourth of July, where we would have a cookout, eat cookie cake, and do fireworks in the street in front of our house.  Our dogs weren’t always sure what to think of Ronnie’s wheelchair, but they liked him, too.  We enjoyed celebrating his birthday with him in 2014, taking him to Applebee’s and then bowling.  It was always fun to celebrate the month of Rontober with “Mr. Ronnie!”

Ronnie went from living in a house on Daladams Drive near the Dorothea Dix campus to living near Sunnybrook Road with Jackie Kelly to moving to his apartment on Tryon Road, where at least 50 people must have attended his apartment-warming party.  I have never seen such a crowded apartment before!  Ronnie certainly had many friends, including his friends from church, and a strong Personal Support Network.  He had friends who would take him out to lunch or dinner. His friends would gladly give him a ride.  One of them even left Ronnie’s cell phone on the roof of the vehicle by accident and drove away.  Oops!  Ronnie didn’t see it again, but his friend bought him a new cell phone.

Ronnie’s Support Network was very important to him.  In addition to the rides to lunch or dinner, people would give him a ride to the hospital if he needed one.  Many thanks to Susan and John Kelley for accompanying him to the hospital when he had major surgery at WakeMed in 2019.  And many thanks to Pastor Jonathan Jeffries for visiting him at Duke Raleigh Hospital during the pandemic and bringing Ronnie his remote control for his shunt that he left at his apartment. 

Ronnie could venture out into the community and have people meet his needs.  The friendly people who work at Checkers Pizza and Subs along Tryon Road would cut up his pizza for him whenever he went there since he could only use one arm.  He became their best and favorite customer.

Ronnie taught us so many lessons, and his life holds a key to meeting the needs of the 15,000-plus people with intellectual and other developmental disabilities waiting to receive Innovations Waiver services in North Carolina.  Yes, Ronnie had paid support.  He had an aide who would come over a few days a week to assist him with activities of daily living such as preparing breakfast and getting dressed.  But he also had the non-paid support that so many people need.  He had friends who would take him out to lunch or dinner.  He had friends who would give him a ride to the hospital when he needed one or visit him in the hospital.  And he had friends who would do tasks such as cut up his food for him so that he could go out in the community independently and do whatever he wanted to.  They were looking out for him.

Ronnie shared his laughter, his life, and his love with all of us.  We will miss him, and I’m glad he is smiling down on us today.