Songs filled the church and tributes followed through the tears.
Inside Change Ministries International Church on Saturday, family, friends and members of the University of The Bahamas community gathered to remember Dahphaney Maxine, a young woman whose presence had become deeply woven into the lives of those around her.
Dahphaney, an education major from Abaco, was found unresponsive in her university dormitory in August. But on Saturday, those who loved her chose to remember the life she lived.
Her brother, Josiah Valcin, spoke of a sister who had a way of making family moments special.
“My sister was one of the best,” he said.
Whatever he needed, he said, Dahphaney would find a way to help.
“When she came home, I was happy to see her,” he remembered.
Even when she told him she was broke, somehow, she would still find a way.
“I don’t know how.”
Dahphaney was a member of the University of The Bahamas Mingoes volleyball team, where Coach Raymond Wilson said she made an impression from the very beginning.
“She walked into our first practice as if she was always there,” he said.
She did not wait for someone to give her a place on the team.
“She made her presence felt,” Wilson said.
He remembered a young woman who arrived with determination and hope.
“When Dahphaney came on board, she came onboard with fire. She came onboard with a big hope.”
For Wilson, Dahphaney’s life reflected the light she carried.
“Dahphaney let her light shine. She did not hide it under a bushel.”
For Nickara Pratt, director of Housing and Resident Life at UB, her memories of Dahphaney began on move-in day in October 2023.
She described her as bright-eyed and full of energy.
“From the first day, we knew something was special about her,” Pratt said.
They saw leadership in her.
Dahphaney had come to Nassau from Abaco to pursue her education, but the university residence became home.
“It was where she laughed, where she danced, where she prayed.”
And where she encouraged other students who felt overwhelmed or intimidated by university life to keep going.
“She was a go-getter,” Pratt said.
If Dahphaney wanted something, she pursued it.
“She was not lazy. She worked.”
She seemed to always have a job while balancing her studies, responsibilities and life as a student.
Pratt described her as “present, engaged and caring.”
They mourned the loss of someone who was still becoming.
“She was growing into the woman she was meant to be,” Pratt said.
“She came as a student and left as family.”