So sorry for your loss. She was a wonderful, considerate, beautiful human being.
I remember when she sent me the most beautiful bouquet of sunflowers, one year after my late husband died just to make me smile. I also remember when we snuck out of a CDA meeting in Fredericton, NB and drove together to discover nearby St John. We laughed all the way. I also remember dancing with her at our last pre-Covid CDA conference. And she was a great dancer! She will be fondly remembered.
Mercy and I have been such wonderful friends and colleagues since July 1978 when we were in practice at 77 Queensway West and then close colleagues at 170 Queensway West. I will never have another occasion to share a friendship and love of Medicine with a more wonderful and delightful person such as Mercy. Thank you Violet, Andrew and the entire Alexis family for the honor and privilege to have offered a measure of advice and support in the shining voyage Mercy has shared with us in this blessed life.
Dino , Lydia and our entire family
My short contribution written with a lot of love coupled with pain.
My Sisi Kwaata, Mercy to most,
For me a jewel of a human being who showed me incredible love, kindness and compassion from an early age.
Thank you for your clear expression of love and kindness towards me from as long as I can remember. You looked out for me and you were concerned about my wellbeing and my survival of childhood! You inspired me to do the best I could be. Watching you study in a crowed sitting room, with the new TV blasting in an apartment in Parkhill Road, London, stayed with me for life: to focus on what I had to do in the circumstances I found myself, rather than hoping for the circumstances to change to suit me.
The pain that I feel knowing that I will not be able to speak with you “this side of Heaven” weighs heavy on my heart. At the same time I am sure that you are in a better place where you are in pain no more.
Thank you for your patience and the incredible confidence you had in me, and the warmly expressed love you showed me, and how you looked out for me.
I am so privileged to have had you as my Sister.
Rest well in the arms of Jesus, my dear Sisi Kwaata, until we meet again.
Your youngest Sister, Hannah Opokua Akuffo Britton,
Stockholm, Sweden
We will miss Mercy very much...she was a wonderful friend who cared about others ...we had many good times together
Growing up with you, Violet, meant I had the fortune of growing up with Mercy, too. She was my best friend’s mom, my dermatologist, but most of all, a graceful, regal figure that I was both comfortable with, and a little shy around. When I was little, I thought she was the most beautiful and glamourous person I ever saw, and she always humoured me when I asked a million questions about Ghana and all of the art she had on her walls. The way she talked about her country always made me, this little Jewish girl down the street, want to pack up my bags and visit. Ghana is still on my list of places I want to go, and that’s largely because of her.
Mercy was full of contradictions: accomplished yet modest, polite yet opinionated, hardworking yet fun-loving , shyly private yet bubbly, warm and welcoming. She wasn’t much for direct attention, but when the moment took her she’d sing and dance with joy and abandon. She had a great sense of humour but also didn’t take any nonesense and let you know it!
She was a pinnacle matriarch, and she loved you and your brother very much. And her grandkids like crazy. And John.
I know she’s proud of the woman that you’ve become. There are many parts of her that I see in you. As your forever friend, it’s been beautiful watching the way you grew even closer to each other after Xander’s birth. Watching Mercy turn to mush with him was awesome, and watching you both seamlessly take care of him together— love him, feed him, play with him— like a couple of old best friends, was really something special. You and Mercy had a really beautiful thing going — a new and growing special bond, and although it was cut short, it was glorious. As was she, and as are you.
I love you. Xoxox