To me she has been a Maama, a good friend, and a selfless lady. I know that what she was to me, is what she was to very many others too. I also know that what I have experienced is a small fraction of her boundless and bountiful love and dedication to her family, friends and community.
I was not born to her, but I became hers and she became mine through our extended family and social networks over the years. I fondly recall our prime encounter short of 40 years ago. I was a troubled soul just out of my teens when I took the night bus out of a troubled Uganda for a respite break in Kenya. I travelled with her late sister who was my guardian for the journey. We arrived in Nairobi in the wee hours of the morning and she was waiting for us. I was very well looked after in their home for about 12 hours before I was taken to my next destination. It was a short encounter of life long significance. From that point, she became a mother figure to me.
This relationship was later significantly cemented when I married one of her ‘adopted’ daughters. Her children’s friends were her children, and my wife was a cherished daughter in this respect. Mukyala Ssali has been a great mother to both of us and a loving granny to our children. Where ever she has been, she has always gone out of her way to find something to send to our kids. And for us, she has dispensed her love and wisdom often without a word, but her mere smile!!
She has been a pillar of her family. An extraordinary rock. The epitome of a dotting and driven matriarch. Traditional and cosmopolitan; humble and confident; serious and amiable; diligent and industrious, but above all, selfless and religious. We send our most heartfelt condolences to her children and family to whom we are also most endeared. May the Lord comfort you, and may her fond memories console you at this difficult time.
Her life and impact over the years has been spread in different countries across the globe. In Uganda, Kenya, UK, Middle East, America and other places that either became home to her or her family and friends. She has split her time and care for her family with that for her friends, church and community in all these places. She has been selflessly dedicated to many people, causes and institutions. I personally saw how often she ignored her age; her arthritis and other ailments; her quality time; and her financial comfort in order to do good for others. The list of good deeds is long, but her care for others when they were sick was outstanding. She was there for so many, and it is therefore additionally sad and traumatizing to think how she went through her final journey in sickness without her loved ones at her bedside.
But I am philosophical and I have faith. I am inspired and consoled by the good that she did. I pray and believe that she was not alone and that she left the way we met 40 years ago ….. ‘in the wee hours of the morning, a troubled soul in troubled times, delivered into the open arms of a waiting angel”
May the Lord rest her soul in peace till we meet again!!
Chris Luswata
UK
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