In Celebration of

Mercy Akuffo Alexis

February 6, 1944 -  June 7, 2022

It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of Dr. Mercy Akuffo Alexis, now living in the hearts of her 2 children, partner, 3 grandkids, her siblings and extended family and friends across the globe.

She died peacefully after a lengthy illness, surrounded by her family.

We will be honouring and celebrating her life at the Turner & Porter Peel Chapel, 2180 Hurontario St., Mississauga (N of the QEW) on Sunday, June 26, 2022, from 10am - 12pm EST.
The ceremony will begin at 11am and will also be live streamed. To view the livestream, please click on the link below (link will be provided on June 25).

Online condolences may be made through this website.

Guestbook 

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Charlene Linzon (friend, colleague)

Entered June 19, 2022 from Toronto

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.

Dr Galdino E Pontarini MD and Lydia Theresia Pontarini (Friend and Colleague since 1978)

Entered June 19, 2022 from 170 Queensway west 202 First Medical Place

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

Hannah Akuffo Britton (Sister)

Entered June 20, 2022 from Stockholm, Sweden

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

Bob and Mary MacNeil (Friends)

Entered June 20, 2022 from Blue Mountains, Ont

We will miss Mercy very much...she was a wonderful friend who cared about others ...we had many good times together

Jennifer Grossman (Violet’s childhood friend)

Entered June 20, 2022 from Mississauga, Ontario

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

Life Stories 

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Sophie (Sister)

Entered June 22, 2022 from Accra, Ghana

A Memory From a Spot in Time Exemplifying My Sister, Dr. Mercy Akuffo-AlexisI wish to share with all who will read whatever in-memoriam publication made in honour of her life, a memory from my very early years, which is so ingrained in my mind, and has always represented for me a snapshot of the essential character of my sister Mercy.It was 1955, and I was awaiting my 6th birthday. I was in class 1 and my father, Rev. F.W. K. Akuffo, had been recently transferred from Konongo-Odumase to Kyebi. As was the norm in our family, the ones who were not in boarding school moved with my parents and those of us in school (our late brother Sakyiama, Stella and I) joined our new classmates immediately - literally, Friday was last day at Odumase United Primary School, and Monday was day one, with full participation, at Kyebi Presbyterian Primary Mixed School. Betty and Hannah hadn’t started school yet (there was then no concept of preschool) and were rather learning common-sense and other valuable informal teaching at home, at the feet of Mama. Everything was new and exciting in our young eyes and one of the highlights ofmy week, other than attending Sunday School, was being sent to the market after school or accompanying Mama to the market on Saturday. Sometimes, another pleasurable outing was being sent to the Palace to see our aunt, Auntie Aba, the King’s wife. The shortest route to any of these places brought one into the vicinity of Asana, the neighbourhood ‘mad’ oddity, who looked every inch mad - dirty, angry and constantly screaming unkindness and profanity, with a large very smelly sore on her leg. As ignorant young children, provoking her with laughter, derision and throwing stones at Asana was an activity some of us learnt from our classmates and participated in with glee, when unaccompanied by Mama.After we had been a couple of months in Kyebi, it was time for our older siblings to come on vacation from their various boarding schools. Mercy, who was in her first year in middle school, and Sis Gloria came from Krobo Presbyterian Girls’ School and Sis Asantewa from Agogo Presbyterian Girls’ School. Bro Kwaku came in from Presec and Bro Kofi was also home from Abuakwa State boarding house. As the veterans of Kyebi town, we, especially Stella and I were full of ‘exciting stories’ about the sights and sounds of our new environment, and we regaled our seniors, particularly Mercy, with these stories, the highlight being ‘Mad Woman Asana’ the one with the smelliest sore.It took only a few days before Mercy had her first experience of Asana in full blast. 1
The day after Mercy sighted Asana, she announced to us that she was going to dress her sore, and truly enough she raided Mama’s well stocked domestic dispensary (with 10 children you had to be ever ready), tore up and rolled some clean threadbare pieces of cloth, boiled a kettle of water, resuscitated an old anddiscarded bowl and set out. Having declared her intentions and that she was the doctor, and Stella the nurse, she recruited us the younger ones (minus Hannah who was too young) as her carriers on her expedition, and with much eager laughter we set out. When we reached where Asana was, at the Lorry Station, Mercy set up her treatment spot under an empty shed and gently coaxed with the help of some kind passers-by Asana to come to her. The traders in the vicinity were all atwitter with curiosity – the children of the new Presby-Sofo wanted to treat Asana’s smelly wounds – and encircled Mercy’s ‘dressing shed’.After mixing a formidable concoction of Dettol and salt (with some potassium permanganate sprinkled in for luck) with hot water in the bowl, with ‘nurse’ Stella standing by with the mysterious but well-proven powdered mixture Mama utilised in dressing our frequent wounds, Mercy dipped the clean rag intothe mixture and began to clean Asana’s wound, which looked gangrenous – no gloves of course. God does protect His Own, Asana did not resist Mercy’s ministrations, rather she was relatively calm and only screamed when the gentledabbing of her wound inevitably caused her pain. I still envision, clearly, Mercy’s finely sensitive finger, in the bowl of medicated water, lifting the rag and placing it on the wound repeatedly as pus oozed out. She then had Stella pour Mama’s magic powder into the wound and she covered it with the large lint she had already prepared and bandaged it with a clean old cloth requisitioned from among Mama’s things. That day was the last time I recall Asana behaving as a mad woman. When we left, she was quietly sitting in the shed. Throughout this scene, the crowd, including me were giggling when Asana would cry out in pain, or exclaiming sounds of disgust when pus oozed out of the wound.As recall, the following day, we went again, and Mercy repeated the treatment. Interestingly, when we got to the Station, Asana was already sitting in the shed with anticipation. Subsequently, our father arranged with the hospital to receive her for continuation of her treatment, as she was no longer disruptive, and her wound healed completely. If memory serves me well, Asana never exhibited signs of madness again. From then on anytime mercy wen to the market Asana would shout with admiration, “Pomua-Pomwa”, her name for Mercy.2
As I grew older and more discerning, I came to realise that Mercy’s act of kindness came to God’s notice and her reward was to become a healer, a renowned and beloved Dermatologist, among her peers and patients throughout North America and in Ghana, whose exceptional skills were acclaimed though numerous awards. Her kindness, gentleness, excellent professionalism and calming efficiency was evident in her work delivery and out there for all to see. If anyone’s life and character demonstrated that there IS something in a name, that was my sister, Merciful Mercy.Whenever you hear or see the name Asana, please join me to remember Dr. Mercy Eunice Akuffo-Alexis and bless the Lord for lending her to mankind for a moment in time, to exemplify His Mercy. Sis, the Dancing Queen, the Fitness Buff, the Healthy Eating Ambassador, the Gentle Soft Spoken but Firm One, above all, Merciful Mercy, rest in perfect peace till we meet again on the Other Side. To the Glory of God, for a life well lived. Amen.

John (Partner)

Entered June 22, 2022

I remember her telling me this story.
As a young girl in school, the time came for her to take a maths test. This was not her strongest subject, to put it mildly. She attended the exam but left soon after. I’m not sure she finished early, or just left early, I suspect the latter. The charming part , to me however was, she spent her bus money on a mars bar, I believe, and went to sit on the beach before walking home.
I don’t remember if she told me of any repercussions, but it didn’t stop her remarkable mind from years of successful studying, in foreign languages, English and Dutch, and becoming a medical specialist doctor. WOW

Bob (Friend)

Entered June 22, 2022

Thanks, my friends, for sharing this news.
Mercy’s death is a significant loss to many, and particularly, to me.

She was like a light in the darkness!
I cherish many memories, as do each of you, but the brilliance of her broad smile and shy demeanour remains clearly in my memory, and not soon to be diminished.

Bob and I had no idea (at the time) the gift it was to us to share a regular dinner with her at the little Armenian restaurant on Confederation Street, making frequent trips to the cold and hot buffet tables. Mercy would be a few minutes late, rushing there from her work, or she would be early having come from the gym, and waiting for us at the corner table where we always sat.

How blessed I was to meet her years and years ago when Sara, as a teenager, was coping with planters warts. Little did we know how significant would be that meeting to me and to my family for decades to follow. One spring, she joined me (and a small group) on a week’s tour to London, UK, where we toured the city, saw some theatrical productions, and walked among the daffodils in bloom in St. James Park. Sara and I were honoured to be guests at Andrew & Ama’s wedding. (How we enjoyed the colourful Ghanaian costumes worn by the women!). More recently, when Sara’s boys were young, Mercy and John visited us at my Amberley Cottage. As well, Bob and I joined the gathering in Collingwood to celebrate John’s 80th birthday. Each contact with her was like a pearl on a string of gems.

The world was better for her having been in it. In truth, I have been anxious for her since she suffered that crippling stroke, and I cannot help but rejoice that those challenging and difficult and painful times have passed. I can see her now, unencumbered, released, energized, and happy in the nearer presence of her God.

Bon voyage, my good friend. In the words of Vera Lynn’s song, “We’ll meet again!”
Bob

Sent from my iPad

Photos 

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