A Grand funeral will be held for the former First Lady, Theresa Kufuor, in Kumasi today.
The funeral follows her interment last Thursday after a Memorial Mass and State Funeral at the forecourt of the State House.
A spokesperson for the family told the Daily Graphic that the funeral will be held at the Heroes Park in Kumasi.
He said the family would also attend a thanksgiving service at the St Peter’s Cathedral in Kumasi tomorrow.
State ceremony
On Thursday, November 16, the journey to eternal rest for Theresa Aba Kufuor, wife of former President, John Agyekum Kufuor, started at the State House in Accra.
The ceremony was interspersed with the singing of hymns, wreath-laying and reading of tributes.
The remains of the former First Lady were transported immediately after the Mass to Kumasi in the Ashanti Region for the final stage of the three-day funeral at the Heroes Park ahead of her burial in the Ashanti Regional capital.
President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo and the First Lady, Rebecca Akufo-Addo; the Vice-President, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, and his wife, Samira Bawumia, were at the ceremony.
Former President John Dramani Mahama also led a delegation from the National Democratic Congress (NDC), including its national Chairman, Johnson Asiedu Nketia, to the Memorial Mass.
Other political figures, business executives, traditional rulers and the clergy were among those in attendance.
President Kufuor was flanked by his brother, Dr Kwame Addo Kufuor, and some other close family relations.
The dignitaries filed past the body to show their last respects to the former first lady.
Seven wreaths were laid in memory of the deceased at the three-hour solemn ceremony on behalf of the state, the widower, grandchildren, family, the Mother and the Child Foundation which she founded, the Roman Catholic Church and traditional rulers.
Biography
Mrs Kufuor died after a short illness at her home at Peduase in the Eastern Region on Sunday, October 1, at the age of 87.
She was born on October 25, 1934 in Kumasi to the late Joseph Henry Mensah Snr from Elmina and Rose Mensah, daughter of the Banmuhene of Sunyani Domase.
Aba, as she was popularly known, was the seventh of 10 children.
She started her primary education at St Benedict’s and continued at the OLA Girls Boarding School in the Volta Region.
Between 1958 and 1961, she trained as a registered general nurse at the Edinburgh Southern Hospitals School of Nursing.
In 1962, she completed her midwifery (part one) at the Nuffield Maternity Home in Oxford, followed by part two at the Paddington General Hospital in London, now known as the St Mary’s Paddington.
The devout Catholic was survived by her husband, former President Kufuor, a sister, five children and 14 grandchildren.
She was a devoted companion of former President Kufuor throughout their 61 years of marriage.
The retired nurse and midwife was a member of a well-known family from Odumase in the Bono Region.
She lived most of her working life in the United Kingdom after her studies at the Radcliffe Infirmary, Oxford, and the Paddington General Hospital in London.
She qualified as a state-certified midwife with a certificate in premature nursing.
Source: GraphicOnline
