The body of the late Mrs. Beatrice Nyenati-Nyenawah, former President of the Zwedru Multilateral High School Alumni Association (ZweMAA) was laid to rest on Saturday, February 26, 2022, at the Gbangbar’s Town Cemetery after funeral services at the Assemblies of God Church on the Old Road, Monrovia amid tears, wailing and mourning from family members, relatives, former workmates, former classmates, community dwellers, friends and sympathizers.
Delivering her funeral discourse at the capacity filled venue, Pastor Mother Nancy Cowolo called on the bereaved family to take the untimely death of Madam Nyenawah as a will of God and see also to remind themselves that there is always an appointed time for everything including birth and death. She said it was a sad thing losing a young person who meant well for her people and who was a pillar for others to rely on but God knows why He has taken her away to be with Him.
“This is surely a difficult time for all of us. The Family, the Church and all of those who one-way or the other associated with her. We are not here to talk more about her because we will not end the story. She was a dedicated servant of God, a community person and a reliable woman whose character and name stood up high. We cannot question God but as Christians we will remain joyous that she was in good standing with God, her Creator and that we will meet her one day in Heaven when we all get there.
“To the bereaved family, relatives and friends, we know how saddened you are and how difficult it will be to have this sad event erased from your mind. But I call on you to take it in good faith because as soldiers on the battlefront for our Lord we should be ready to go and meet Him. The Book of Ecclesiastes in Chapter tells us that there is a time for every season and this is one of them. It is time to get closer to your God, hold on to your faith, the only hope of our salvation and when you die, your destination is assured in Heaven”, she said.
Earlier a moving tribute from the Zwedru Multilateral High School Alumni Association (ZweMAA), an institution she revived and led for many years and for which she was referred to as “President Emeritus”
“Life, according to knowledgeable people, including preachers of the gospel, scholars, whether in the fielsd of politics or any other human enterprise is characterized and full of uncertainties. The uncertainties being mentioned by these people could be manifested in the life of anyone without any prior notice. These expressions, today have come into reality, the fact that our fallen president emeritus, Mrs. Beatrice Nyenati Nyenawah who is resting in the casket laying before us was among other members of our alumni association when we paid a departing tribute on September 24, 2021 to Mrs. Marpue Mamba Speare, our immediate past president who died in the United States of America and was brought home for burial. We were saddened by that great tragedy, losing a very energetic woman full of vigor to serve her alma mater and people and was cut down by a sickness that shattered the dream and aspiration of all of us in terms of contributing to our alma mater.
“Our late president emeritus though subdued by the death of a leader whose emergence she facilitated rallied us to summon the courage to bear the irreparable loss and face the daunting challenges ahead. Curiously enough, on that fateful day, right in the hall, her phone mysteriously got missing and up to now, remained a mystery. Was it a sign of her premature departure? We are still wondering the connection to the dilemma we find ourselves but it is save enough to say that the missing phone could be a sign that the very lively communication link between her and us was been cut off.
“Ma bee as she was affectionately called, enrolled at the Zwedru Multilateral High School in 1984 as a tenth grader and graduated in 1986 majoring in business education. She was a quiet, studious, respectful and easy-going person. She was not involved in any extra-curricular activities, such as student activism and sports while on campus. Interestingly enough, her past while on campus did not represent what she later on became to be associated with when she took the initiative to reorganize the declining fortune of the Zwedru Multilateral High School alumni association at the end of the war years. She was able to mobilize all those she could reach and gradually from being a dead institution, it became unarguably the most visible and potent alumni association of schools in the whole of the south eastern part of Liberia. With her uncommon organizational and leadership skills, she was able to raise the bar and got the school to be listed for attention and support by the government and some of Liberia’s development partners
“It is worthy here to openly state that conditions and circumstances have made us not to fulfill her wish she told us during one of her great outings with the Zwedru Multilateral High School Alumni Association. In 2018, during the 40th foundation celebration of our alma mater, she was honored for her outstanding contribution to the school and the alumni association and in excitement, she did burst in tears and said, “when i die, take me to ZMHS and bury me there, my navel strain was buried there”, and we all responded in shouts that indeed your wish is granted. Ma bee, you are right before us here and not on ZMHS campus but we are all there in spirit with your body, surrounded by the entire family and in souls of the departed celebrating your glorious exit, though painful. You can be assured that when the history of the school and the alumni association is rewritten, your name will be boldly stated in irremovable prints. We are in tears to bid you farewell and our relationship remains uncancelled. Your legacy will not be forgotten and neglected. You were a leader worth emulating, you fought the right battle and won the struggle to make ZweMAA a great institution. On behalf of the principal, faculty, student body, the entire ZMHS family and the alumni association both at home and abroad, we say, farewell, farewell, we shall meet again in heaven when the saints will all gather to say, “free at last, free at last, we are free at last”, major parts of the tribute said.
The Acting President, Mark T. Wilson, while laying wreath on the mortal remains of their departing colleagues said that the legacy lived by especially her contributions to the school and the association will be remembered and he will make sure that such lofty undertaking will not be left in the dustbin of history. He told the bereaved family to find comfort in their hearts to bear the huge loss.
The late Madam Nyenawah, 56, died on February 11, 2022 at the John F. Kennedy Memorial Hospital after a brief illness. A former staff of the National Port Authority was survived by husband, Mr. Charles Nyenawah, four children, 23 grandchildren, a great grandchild, two brothers, a sister and a host of other relatives.
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