Six months before her death , Sen. Geraldine Thompson met her protégé and friend Rep. LaVon Bracy Davis for lunch at the senior statesman’s favorite restaurant Olive Garden. Thompson had something important to say amid this humble setting of unlimited breadsticks.

Thompson revealed that she was going to resign early from her Senate term — although she didn’t say when — and asked if Bracy Davis would take over her work. Thompson, a civil rights leader and giant in Central Florida politics, was in her mid-70s and wanted to spend more time with her family and her museum.

Bracy Davis agreed, unaware how fate would play out and that her mentor would die unexpectedly from complications from knee surgery less than a year later.

The Ocoee Democrat was sworn in this week as the new fac

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