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Encomiums at outing service for Hannah Thomopulos
By Kamal Tayo Oropo
A FLOODGATE of encomiums was thrown open yesterday for Mrs. Hannah Annie Thomopulos (Sisi) as the late mother of the Chief Executive of Guardian Press Limited, Mrs. Maiden Ibru made her last journey home.
It was, however, a tearful farewell from Mrs. Maiden Ibru, in fond memory of her late mother beside the tomb. The scene was the Ikoyi Cemetery where the late Mrs. Thomopulos was laid to rest after an Outing Thanksgiving at Our Saviour's Church (Anglican Communion), Tafawa Balewa, Lagos.
The outing itself, which drew an unprecedented crowd to the church, was third on the list of programmes of the day at the church. But when it got to the turn of the Outing for Sisi, as Mrs. Thomopulos was fondly called, it was like the whole church came particularly for that purpose. The Thanksgiving queue led to the altar by Mr. and Mrs. Alex Ibru and their children was virtually endless, as friends, relations and well-wishers managed to make it to the line even from outside the church. It took close to 30 minutes to return everyone to his or her seat thereafter.
Immediately after the church service and ex`change of pleasantries, friends and close family members moved to the final resting place of Mrs. Thomopulos. It was here Mrs. Ibru poured out her heart: that children must really be ingrates, no matter what good deeds a child did for the parents. "It pains me that at times we were very unfair to her," she said amidst tears. Her younger sister, Mrs. Philomena Awosika was, however, on hand to console her, reiterating that: "Some errors are committed out of love and desire to make things better."
Earlier at the church, Reverend Osaro Ogbomo had admonished family and friends of the deceased to give glory to the Almighty God that the children have survived her. "That the children survive the parents and accord them a befitting burial is the desire of all parents," he said, while also praying that the grandchildren of the deceased survive their own parents and even make them happier.
At the cemetery, Dr. Awosika, one of the sons-in-law, told The Guardian that Sisi was a very wonderful woman who was very passionate about the survival of her children's marital life. According to him, to Sisi, her sons-in-law never did wrong, as she preferred to caution her children to be more patient and be homemakers.
On what he will miss most about Mrs. Thomopulos, Dr. Awosika said: "I will miss her always asking me 'how are my grandchildren'. She was always there for you, someone you can always call upon. She really played a motherly role to me. She was both mother and father to her own children".
To Mr. Dick MacGray, husband of the only surviving sister of Mrs. Thomopulos, the late Ugba-one (pronounced Ugbone) was a most wonderful woman he will miss so much. "I will miss her motherly advice. She is like my own sister. In fact, I married my wife (her younger sister) through her. What I intend to do is to do the same thing I did when her elder sister died in 1982; I will put a large portrait of her in my parlour so that I will see her face everyday," he said.
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