Happy birthday to our mum, Mrs. Gladys Ocloo Addrah. Today, we have come to learn that you were a mum to many more than just us, your children. A mum always looks out for the well-being of her children and she did look beyond just her children. Even during her last moments, she was preaching salvation to a soul, praying for the wellbeing of that person and shared her acts of love wherever she went.
To some, she was the colleague who shared the best of advice, looked out for their best interest and cared more for them even when they sort the opposite for her. She was a fighter and most times she’d intercede simply because she believed that’s what Jesus would have done. She was firm, that side of her not many knew. Her siblings would best attest to the name Adzo Glady and the impressions that followed. She wasn’t one to be feared but her presence carried truth, honesty, love, hope, joy, peace, long-suffering and kindness.
Mum, the charitable one
I recall asking her why she gave most of her time and money out to charity and to help others and she’d answer saying she had no use of money at this stage in her life; her children are well to do and all she wants now is to help others, draw closer to God and to be able to master the scriptures. Nothing made mum happier than seeing us closer to God and getting an answer to a prayer. In those moments, she’d be glowing in smiles, singing praises, speaking in tongues and dancing to praise God.
“A society grows great when old Men plant trees the shade of which they know they’ll never sit in” – Greek Proverb. Good people are selfless but Great people plant themselves to become the shade they’ll never know who will sit in. Mum was truly a great person not because she stopped a world war or averted a disaster but simply because the lot of us here can testify to the shade of herself cast over us.
Thank you, mum, for being whom you are and for availing yourself as a worthy vessel for God’s use.
Here’s a little poem I wrote to see her off.
THE POEM
We lived over three decades with a loving soul and all of that glamour now has to fit a couple of minutes’ writeup.
Life is indeed a journey and journeyed well. You did run the race, fiercely against tribulations with the backing of God and up ahead awaits your crown, “an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that does not fade away, reserved in heaven for you.” – 1 Peter 1:4
Indeed, all flesh is as grass, the glory of man like the beauty of the flower that withers with the grass. However, while you blossomed, we were fortunate to be under your cover, to behold your beauty, adorned by the ornaments of your love and the nature of God as projected through you.
So, we shed tears that you are gone yet lo we smile because you lived.
Never a day or night gone past when our eyes firmly shut-in prayers that you’ll come back; but by grace, our eyes are illuminated by what you’ve left behind.
The beating heart sounds loudly empty because you’re out of sight yet lo we drew in the love you shared with us.
Yes, we’ve been there, giving up on tomorrow and turning to yesterday but recounting your smile; we are happy for tomorrow because of the yesterday you gave us.
You surely will be remembered fondly not for your absence but cherishing your memories and letting it live on.
It is easiest to cry and shut our minds, feel empty and look into the past with grief but we choose what you would have wanted; smile with our hearts, look onto a brighter day, love and continue the journey as you’ve handed on. This we promise to do in love, with love, wholeheartedly with God on our side.
Farewell
May God’s chariots of fire carry you up by a whirlwind into His bosom. We remain grateful to God that you lived a happy life. We love you Mum.
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