NEW YORK, NY – APRIL 19: Aretha Franklin performs onstage during the ‘Clive Davis: The Soundtrack of Our Lives’ Premiere Concert during the 2017 Tribeca Film Festival at Radio City Music Hall on April 19, 2017 in New York City. (Photo by Noam Galai/Getty Images for Tribeca Film Festival)
Aretha Franklin is currently being laid to rest after passing on August 16. One of the people present, out of the many celebrities, fans and family who made their way to Greater Grace Church in Detroit to say goodbye, is her niece, Cristal Franklin. Ahead of the homegoing service, Cristal spoke with local news station WDIV, Click on Detroit, about the last years of her life, and why Aretha chose to be private about her 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.'”
Cristal also spoke about how Aretha dealt with her cancer diagnosis. It was unclear when she first found out about it, but there were reports about it dating back to 2010 after she had major surgery at the end of that year.
“For a while 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.”
Still, Cristal tried to keep her aunt encouraged as her battle with the disease became more difficult.
“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.'”
Dealing with the loss hasn’t been easy for the family, and for Cristal, she has tried to lean on humor to find solace. When asked what she would say to her aunt if she could speak to her right now, Cristal attempted to lighten things up.
“I’m a kill her for dying,” she joked. “Didn’t nobody tell her to die on us! I could kill her for this.”
But in all seriousness, like her mother and the rest of her family, she’s hoping to hold it together as they pay their final respects to the Queen.
“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.”
=auto” width=”640″ height=”395″ frameborder=”0″]
