Biography
Patience Abla Awudee
On December 26th, 2023, a birthday party was organized for Mad. Patience Abla Awudee a.k.a. Maame Teacher. Had she known that that was her last birthday party, when called upon to recount her life history, she would have preceded her story with the following song:
“I know not the hour when my Lord will come
To take me away to His own dear.
But I know that His Presence will lighten the gloom
And that will be glory for me…”
Before the birthday party, she and her children had put together her autobiography. During the party, she just told the participants the highlights of her life. Today, during her burial service, the full story will be read, and it goes as follows:
Her Story
Birth and Parentage
My name is Patience Abla Awudee. I was born on December 26, 1944. I’m the third-born of my mother’s four children and the sixth-born of my father’s ten children. My father was the late Lawrence Awudi Aliƒui Fianu, a renown goldsmith and businessman who hailed from Anyako but lived at Keta. My mother was Vincentia Nyeŋu Amedume from Abɔlɔve but lived at Keta with her husband. She was one of the major maize sellers in the Keta market in the fifties and early sixties.
Childhood and Early Education
I spent my childhood days in my father’s house at Keta together with our elder sister, Davi Beauty and my younger siblings, Ablewɔ and Kɔblavi.
Except Davi Beauty, we all attended the KETA A. M. E. Zion School. I completed the elementary school in 1963 with the Middle School Leaving Certificate.
Further Studies
I sat for the Teachers’ Training College Entrance Examination. Having been successful I was admitted to the Amedzofe E. P. Teachers’ Training College (AMECO) (now College of Education) in 1964 where I pursued a Four-Year Certificate A Course. I would like to point out that 1964 was the year when a four-year Certificate A Course was started in Ghana. Before then, trainees had to go in for a Two-Year Certificate B Course, went out and taught for a number of years before returning to the college for another two years to obtain Certificate A. God being on my side, I completed the college successfully in 1968.
Sporting Activities
My Brothers and Sisters, today, you see me sitting in a wheelchair. But I was not born lame. Both at the elementary school and college, I was an active sportswoman. For about four consecutive years, I represented my school as a high jumper at the inter-school athletic competitions. At college, I added javelin throwing, 4 x 100 metres relay, netball and volleyball to the high jump. And I represented my college in all these disciplines. I even represented Ghana during a West African Colleges Sports Competition that took place in Nigeria.
Postings and Promotions
The first station l was posted to after becoming a professional teacher was Danfa Methodist School. Danfa is a town about twenty-five kilometers from the city of Accra and off the Madina-Aburi Road. So, I was proud that l wasn’t a village teacher but a “semi-city teacher.” After two years at Danfa, l got released to the Volta Region Ghana Education Service that posted me to Jasikan. I taught at Jasikan for about five years before being posted to Hohoe E.P. Middle School.
I would like to point out that my posting to Jasikan and Hohoe was influenced by the fact that my elder sister, Beauty, and her husband, Mr. Clemence Dagadu were by then staying in those towns.
My next duty post was the Kpong Methodist School. I was teaching over here when my family requested me to move to Accra to join my mother who had relocated from Keta to Accra, after losing her husband and a portion of our house to the sea.
So l got transferred to the Kotobabi Primary School in Accra in 1979 and lived with my mum offering her the needed help while pursuing my teaching career. Later on, I was transferred to Kotobabi Down Primary School and finally to Alajo 1 Primary School from where l went on voluntary retirement in 1998.
My performance in the classroom and in the school in general, my success in the internal courses l undertook and the interviews l passed took me from the rank of Assistant Superintendent to the rank of Assistant Director of Education before l retired.
And so, for about twenty good years, I molded and shaped the destinies of a good number of children in the Kotobabi-Alajo enclave. It is not surprising that my pupils and their parents affectionately call me Maame Teacher.
My next duty post was the Kpong Methodist School. I was teaching over here when my family requested me to move to Accra to join my mother who had relocated from Keta to Accra, after losing her husband and a portion of our house to the sea.
So l got transferred to the Kotobabi Primary School in Accra in 1979 and lived with my mum offering her the needed help while pursuing my teaching career. Later on, I was transferred to Kotobabi Down Primary School and finally to Alajo 1 Primary School from where l went on voluntary retirement in 1998.
My performance in the classroom and in the school in general, my success in the internal courses l undertook and the interviews l passed took me from the rank of Assistant Superintendent to the rank of Assistant Director of Education before l retired.
And so, for about twenty good years, I molded and shaped the destinies of a good number of children in the Kotobabi-Alajo enclave. It is not surprising that my pupils and their parents affectionately call me Maame Teacher.
Marriage and Children
At Jasikan, I got married to the late Nana Yaw Osiakwan. God blessed our marriage with a daughter, Mrs Millicent Ama Ayisi and a son, Mr. Eric Mawuli Osiakwan. For one reason or the other the marriage didn’t work. In Accra, I got into a relationship with my cousin, the late Mr. Bamford Kofi Gbormittah. We had a son by name, Lawrence Kwaku Gbormittah.
Religious Activities
I was baptized and confirmed into the A.M.E. Zion faith at Keta. However, as the Zion Church had no branches at Danfa, Jasikan and Kpong, l fellowshipped with the Methodist Church of Ghana. In Accra, l became a member of the Matured Evangelical Gospel Church, where my mother also was a member.
Incapacitation and Indisposition
I left Danfa a sick person. By the time I recovered from this sickness, I became a lame person. It was with this disability that l discharged my duties as a teacher independently and blemishly at Jasikan, Hohoe, Kpong and in Accra. However, in the late 1990s, my disability was having a great toll on me necessitating my early exit from the teaching field in 1998 instead of 2004.
In retirement, I enjoyed the best of health as l was no longer stressing to prepare lesson notes, trekking to and from school and going through the classroom work. However, in 2011, I was down with stroke. By the grace of God, I recovered somehow and celebrated my seventieth anniversary in 2014. After that celebration, my health has not been stable; in and out of hospitals became my regular schedule; it even deteriorated to the extent that I couldn’t do many things for myself. And care-givers have to be employed to cater for me. But my God has kept me alive to celebrate what I’ve dubbed my “80-1 birthday”
In retirement, I enjoyed the best of health as l was no longer stressing to prepare lesson notes, trekking to and from school and going through the classroom work. However, in 2011, I was down with stroke. By the grace of God, I recovered somehow and celebrated my seventieth anniversary in 2014. After that celebration, my health has not been stable; in and out of hospitals became my regular schedule; it even deteriorated to the extent that I couldn’t do many things for myself. And care-givers have to be employed to cater for me. But my God has kept me alive to celebrate what I’ve dubbed my “80-1 birthday”
Appreciation
I would like to seize this opportunity to sincerely express my appreciation for all my children, my care-givers including Mad. Georgina Ataa Dwamenah, Mad. Augustina Agyei, Madam Kate Arkoh Fousuwaa and Mad. Akosua Akpabi, all family members, church members and friends who have helped me in one way or the other.
God bless you all!
God bless you all!
A Missing Point
Reviewing Maame Teacher’s autobiography, it is evident that a very significant point about her was missing, probably out of humility or forgetfulness. In Ʋegbe, that quality is known as “amedɔɖuɖu”. An English rendition may be “compassion that considerably ameliorate the state of its subject”. The proof of this quality of hers was evident in the quality care she gave her mother, Mama Nyeŋu, her aunties, Nɔviegbɔ and Ami and her numerous forster children.
The End
On March 24, 2024, when Maame Teacher woke up, she was not her usual self. However, those around her did not think there was anything serious happening to her. They decided to observe her closely throughout the day. However, on the following day when they did not see any improvement in her condition, she was taken to the Accra Regional Hospital (Ridge) where she peacefully passed to glory the next day (March 26), leaving behind three biological children and eight of their children, ten forster children, a sister, two brothers, numerous cousins, nephews, nieces and their descendants.
Epilogue
March 26, 2024 was the day the Lord came and took her away. And so, her soul can no longer sing:
“I know not the hour when my Lord will come
To take me away to His own dear.
But I know that His Presence will lighten the gloom
And that will be glory for me…”
For now, it is no longer knowing the hour But experiencing the hour And experiencing His Presence and His glory.
For now, it is no longer knowing the hour But experiencing the hour And experiencing His Presence and His glory.
Patience Abla Awudee, Maame Teacher, may His Presence enrapture your soul and transport her to greater heights. This is our fervent prayer for you and we accept done according to His holy will,
AMEN
AMEN
