Maria Theresa was born on the Island of Mozambique called then Ilha de Mozambique the 6th of 7 children. At the age of 7, the whole family moved to Goa, India where she did her schooling. She went on to do her Teachers training in Belgaum, India and worked as a Teacher in Nagpur and Calcutta. Her elder sister Alzira was married and living in Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania at the time and the Aga-Khan School in Tanzania required Teachers. She applied, got the job and she then travelled by ship to Dar to work as a Teacher.
After working for 3 years with the Aga-Khan School, she taught at the Government Schools for 8 years with her main subjects being Geography and Math. Till date, when she was still living in Tanzania she constantly used to bump into her ex-students now all fully grown up and with kids of their own who were always happy to see their ex-Teacher.

In 1963 she got married to Alex D’Costa who lived in Changombe near her sister Alzira’a house. She had 4 children Kevin (who Died when only a month old) Claudette, Orlando and Natalie.

She taught until 1972, left teaching, went on to Secretarial School, and later joined UNESCO as a Secretary for 4 years, then Sanitary Appliances, FAO and Finally Mund Associates.

Her loving husband Alex, her loving son Kevin, predeceases her and she leaves behind her loving children Claudette, Orlando and Natalie and her loving Grandchildren, Kirsty, Kevin and Kyle. Her loving in-laws Neville and William, all her nieces, nephews, cousins and friends will miss her. She passed away exactly 20 years and a month (to the date) from when her loving husband passed away.

She was a fun loving mum and was the life of a party. She loved music, dancing and her kids concentrating and studying for an exam did not stop her from pulling them up to dance especially when her favourite Tango song came on the radio. She had a wonderful attractive and contagious laugh that in many a serious situation we would get in trouble as she started laughing (giggling actually) and many a time for no good reason besides something silly like just a funny face etc.

She instilled in us the love of music and dance. She played the piano until she could not play anymore. She wanted us all to learn music. Alas only Orlando got her gene for playing music and it got passed down to her granddaughter Kirsty. She loved to sing and sung in the church choir and we too got her bug of singing that for every party we had a sing-a-long. Her Favorite song that she would insist we all hold hands and sing at all family gatherings used to be….”Here we are again, Happy as can be, all good friends and jolly good Company.

We love you mum and will miss you terribly but we know God loved you more and you are in a better place now with Jesus and Mary and Dad and Kevin by your side.

We would love to end with a quote from Scripture “2 Timothy 4:7-8” that says….

"I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day—and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing".

In Lieu of Flowers please make a donation to the "Trillium Health Partners Foundation Palliative Care Fund"