Marlene C. Francia, documentarian, lecturer and all-around mission-driven human, died Feb. 28.
She was 69.
The daughter of two professors at the University of the Philippines Los Baños, she was the eldest of five children, most of whom followed their parents in studying and working in the sciences.
Marlene was the only one to break from that, first obtaining a bachelor’s degree in anthropology, then a master’s degree in communications — though she did work for organization causes related to environmental conservation.
Given the period she was raised, she was also an advocate for a free and healthy press that captured history as it happened. She also loved good stories captured the people they were about.
While Marlene worked as a lecturer and in media and education consulting, she notably spent more than a decade in Nairobi, Kenya, where she worked for NGOs while also pursuing photography projects.
Marlene maintained a blog that not only chronicled her time traveling around Africa but also archiving the journals of my grandfather — of which are how I learned more about him after he died nearly 20 years earlier. Perhaps her most striking account is of the time she kidnapped by gunmen — but of course, she was very lucky.
Marlene spent her last few years in our hometown, eventually dying from an illness that began to develop in Kenya.
She is survived by her four siblings, their spouses, six nieces and nephews, as well as one grandniece.
I’ll be frank: Given her career of choice, Marlene was a polarizing figure among family members, but one who I looked up to and credit for my baby photos.
And like my aunt, I broke off from pursuing a career in STEM and law, and have similar news philosophy.
Kudos to her for encouraging my interest in journalism and photography — as well as nurturing my intense curiosity and investigative nature, to many people’s chagrin. (You can thank her!)
Unfortunately, the domain to her blog expired a while ago, so I’ll try to keep my memory of what she wrote alive. But here’s a video project in which retold the events of a massacre:
And here’s a collection of her many photos, mostly from her time in Nairobi: https://www.flickr.com/photos/21818941@N07/
The featured photo is from when she was supporting the University of the Philippines in the final round of a basketball tournament in 2018.
Dearest Reverie 