By Stephen Asante
Accra, Oct. 02, GNA – President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has expressed condolences to former President John Agyekum Kufuor and his family on the passing of the former First Lady, Theresa Kufuor.
“Her passing reminds me keenly of human mortality, that is that Almighty God will come for each and every one of us at the appropriate time,” he said in a statement issued on Monday, October 2.
The death of the former First Lady, 87, was reported on Sunday.
She served as First Lady from 2001 to 2009 and had been married to former President Kufuor for 61 years.
President Akufo-Addo described the late Theresa as a composed and articulate First Lady.
“She was politically astute and was a major contributor to her husband’s political success.
“Her warmth, kindness and grace were exceptional. She bore the vicissitudes of life with great stoicism and an unshakable belief in the sovereignty of Almighty God,” the President wrote.
The tribute acknowledged the late Theresa as an invaluable and constant source of advice, encouragement and prayers for former President Kufuor.
“My wife, Rebecca, the First Lady, and I will miss her a lot,” the President mourned.
“We wish her a peaceful place of abode in the Bosom of the Almighty, as she deserves, until the Last Day of the Resurrection when we shall all meet again. Amen!!”
In 2007, the former First Lady pushed for policy changes in the Government’s white paper on Educational Reforms towards the implementation of UNESCO’s Free Compulsory Universal Basic Education (FCUBE) programme for kindergarten children.
She also founded the Mother and Child Community Development Foundation (MCCDF), a non-governmental organisation, operating in Ghana and Canada that supports work in prevention of mother-to-child transmission.
The late Theresa Kufuor started her education at the Catholic Convent, OLA, at Keta in the Volta Region of Ghana.
She later went to London, United Kingdom, where she was educated as a Registered General Nurse, in the Southern Hospital Group of Nursing.
After further study at the Radcliffe Infirmary, Oxford and Paddington General Hospital, London, she qualified as a State Certified Midwife with a Certificate in Premature Nursing.
GNA