SMA priests and seminarians gathered on 1 February last to say a final farewell to a greatly beloved member of the wider SMA family, Mrs Katie Oruwariye, who died on 10 January 2013.
Daughter of an English mother and Ghanaian father, Katie Efua Smith-Kaye was born in London on 6 October 1916. Her father died while Katie was still a young girl. Her mother, despite all the odds, raised her and her siblings on her own. After completing her secondary education Katie went to work with a German Jewish family who were preparing to go to Palestine. A chance meeting with a west African student helped turn Katie’s life away from Palestine and towards west Africa where she came in 1939.
Popularly known as Auntie Katie this remarkable Christian lady was to spend the rest of her life in Nigeria, first near the Cameroon border with her Nigerian husband and then for the rest of her life in Ibadan where she became a valued and greatly esteemed and loved member of the wider SMA family.
Read Just a little about her – a Tribute from the Nigerian Wives Association, Ibadan Branch.
Click on the following links for further information: Report on the Funeral Mass. Homily of Fr Tim Cullinane SMA.