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Tag: First Lady

  • First Lady weeps as stakeholders shun meeting

    First Lady weeps as stakeholders shun meeting

    First Lady Dame Patience Jonathan was all tears yesterday at a meeting she convened in Abuja over the abduction of school girls in Chibok, Borno State.

    Her first meeting on Friday set up a committee headed by the Borno State governor’s wife to ensure attendance at yesterday’s meeting. But the governor’s wife did not attend.

    Mrs Jonathan was said to have wept when she learnt that the school had no stand-by power generator.

    Besides, no extra security was provided at the school, she was told.

    She was devastated that the governor’s wife did not show up for the meeting on Friday and yesterday .

    The First Lady  insisted that the state government and the Commissioner for Education should be blamed for the abduction of the girls as they allegedly failed to act on the letter from the Minister of Education for relocation of West African School Certificate Examination (WASCE) candidates to Maiduguri or safer places.

    The West African Examination Council (WAEC) and the school’s principal disagreed at the meeting over the number of candidates for English and Maths in the school.

    Among those that did not show up for the meeting were parents of the girls who escaped from the insurgents and teachers from the school.

    Also, no student who escaped from the terrorists came for the meeting.

    The vigilante group, wife of the Chibok village head, the gateman of the school, chairman and secretary of the Parent Teachers Association and the school matron were also absent.

    Mrs Jonathan said: “I told the governor’s wife to call the parents of the abducted children; she did not honour it till today. The next thing I saw was women demonstrating on the streets. Now again, before Friday, my protocol (officer) called her and she gave 100 per cent assurance that she will be here on Friday. But she did not.”

    “Now again, she is not here. Because she is the mother of Borno, she is the mother of those children and I am the grandmother. She should feel more concerned. But she is not. I and the Nigerian women are calling her, but she is not here.

    “It is left for you. If you tell me you are not pained, why should I cry more than the bereaved? If I do so, the world will ask me questions.

    “You people are playing games. This thing will not help us. After today, if these Borno people say we should not help them, you Nigerian women should not go out to demonstrate because they are playing games. You can keep it in Borno and let it end there.

    “The Police came with their own; the Army came with all their own, WAEC came with all their own, but the Borno government came with a few. No parent is here to tell us that a child is missing. They cannot produce a parent whose child is missing.”

    The First Lady wondered why some people were dying and others playing politics.

    She noted that the next kidnap victim could be anybody, including her.

    The First Lady added: “As a person, I really want these killings to stop. We may be the next people to be kidnapped if we let things pass by like this. We should not fold our hands and let things happen like this.

    “Our sisters in the North, we are one country and we are sisters. We are not accusing you; we do not mean any harm and we are not quarrelling with anybody; we just want to stop all these killings.”

    “We don’t wear bullet proof, we don’t know who they have already targeted. I’m not exempting myself or my husband. If I’m found guilty, let me go. Whoever is behind this, let us go politely to him and ask him to let all these stop.

    “If it is the Constitution that is causing this, let us go to the National Assembly and beg them to amend whatever it is.”

    “When something happened, let us all find solution. Look at the way the matter was brought up. The country would have gone on fire. You are making it look as if the President abducted the children,” she said.

    During the responses from the school principal, Asabe Kwaburah, the Commissioner for Education, Musa Kubo and the Divisional Police Officer in charge of Chibok and some army officers at the meeting, the First Lady said the Police and Army cannot be blamed as they were not informed that the students sitting for the exams sleep in the school.

    “The lapses here are on you the Commissioner of Education and the state government.”

    While the school principal, who claimed that her grand-daughter is among the missing girls, said 395 students sat for English subject, the WAEC official, Charles Eguridu told the meeting that 387 girls sat for English subject before the abduction and 80 girls sat for Maths after the attack.

    The principal said she was not around during the abduction as she was in Maiduguri for diabetic treatment. Acoording to her, she goes to Maiduguri every two weeks for the treatment.

    The Commissioner for Health told the gathering that she had not seen any of the abducted girls that escaped from the terrorists.

    The First Lady broke down and wept the second time towards the end of the meeting saying: “You want to kill my husband; you want to make me a widow before you go and rest. My God will never make me a widow.”

  • First Lady to lay foundation of UNILAG’s hostel

    The First Lady, Dame Patience Jonathan will tomorrow lay the foundation for the construction of a 15-storey female hostel in the University of Lagos (UNILAG).

    The new facility to be named ‘Dame Patience Goodluck Jonathan hall’ will be sited at Honours Hostel.

    The Deputy Vice Chancellor, (Management Services), Prof. Duro Oni, announced this at a briefing.

    According to him, the proposed 1500-capacity hostel is an initiative of the Parents’ Forum to elevate the institution, and solve accommodation challenges faced by students.

    The DVC, who lauded the initiative, thanked Mrs Jonathan for accepting the project to be named after her.

    “This is, indeed, the first of its kind in any Nigerian university for parents to come together and agree to build a hostel of international standard as a way of solving the problem of accommodation faced by their children on campus.

    The Director of Students’ Affairs, Prof, Olukayode Amund, who noted that about 28,000 undergraduates are struggling for 8,000 bed spaces, added that the project, when completed, would go a long way to assuage the problem of accommodation in the insitution.

     

  • First Lady, governors’ wives welcome New Year babies

    First Lady, governors’ wives welcome New Year babies

    First Lady Dame Patience Jonathan and wives of governors welcome the first babies of the year in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja and various state capitals, write WALE ADEPOJU and EMEKA ODOGWU.

    First Lady Dame Patience Jonathan and wives of governors welcomed the first babies in Abuja and the state capitals yesterday.

    Mrs Jonathan visited the first baby of the year at the Gwarimpa General Hospital in Abuja and prayed that he would grow in peace. The first baby, yet to be named, was born to Mr and Mrs Zubairu at 12.45 a.m. through Caesarean section and weighed 3.5kg at birth.

    Mrs Jonathan, who was represented by Ms Onyeka Onwenu, the Director-General, National Council for Women Development, said: “Babies are special gifts from God. I wish them God’s blessings, peace and tranquility. The children will grow in peace and will be great because children are special gifts from God.’’

    Also speaking to reporters, Dr Ademola Onokomaya, the Secretary, Hospitals Management Board, said: “Our slogan is healthcare based on quality and equity to all.

    “We are committed to bringing about quality healthcare to everyone.’’

    In an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), the elated mother of the first baby, Fatima Zubairu, thanked the First Lady for the visit.

    She also thanked her for the gifts given her and promised to give the best quality education to the child.

    She said: “I am happy and grateful for this visit and by Allah’s grace, we shall give the child the best education we can afford and may God reward the First Lady for this kind gesture.’’

    NAN reports that Baby Zubairu was flanked by a group of 10 other babies also born on January 1, consisting of seven boys and three girls.

    A set of twins born to Mr and Mrs Adejare Adediji are the babies of the year in Lagos State.

    The twin girls, who were delivered through a caesarian section (CS) at 12:01am yesterday at Lagos Island Maternity Hospital, weighed 2.5 and 2.2kgs. Their length and circumference are 48 and 41, and 34 and 31respectively.

    The mother, Mrs Folashade Adejare, 37, who hail from Ogun State, is in stable condition under the supervision of doctors and nurses of the hospital.

    “I’m okay. I thank God for His wonderful gifts,” she said.

    The babies, she said are her second, adding: “I have a child before.”

    Wife of Lagos State Governor, Dame Abimbola Fashola, congratulated the lucky parents on the birth of the twins. “I congratulated the mother on save delivery of the babies,” she added.

    She urged parents to show commitment in the way they care for their children, especially in the first five years of life.

    According to her, they should ensure they are vaccinated against childhood killer diseases and breastfed exclusively for at least six months.

    She further charged the parents, especially mothers to help their babies actualise their potentials.

    Lagos State Commissioner for Health, Dr Jide Idris thanked the health workers for their commitment and dedication to duty.

    He said: “Health workers are doing a lot but more is expected of them.”

    Idris enjoined them to work in harmony and peace as a team.

    He said the state governor and government are committed to ensure people access health care.

    Special Adviser to the State Governor on Public Health, Dr Yewande Adeshina said health workers should do their best to save lives at all times because they are supposed to do so.

    She condemned wrangling in the health sector.

    At Ifako Ijaiye General Hospital, Ifako, Baby Mojisola Ebo, who was born at 12:02am, was the joint second baby of the year, with Baby Oluwamayowa Enitan Williams, who was born at Apapa General Hospital, Apapa.

    The wife of the Anambra State Governor, Mrs Margret Peter-Obi, yesterday presented gifts worth several thousands of naira and cash to the first babies of the year at different public hospitals in the state.

    The first baby of the year in Anambra State was Chinemerem Ezinwanne, a girl delivered at Primary Health Centre, Aguata, which is located inside the local government headquarters. She was delivered by 12am and weighed 3.2kg.

    Her parents, Mr Oliver Ezinwanne and Mrs Ebele Ezinwanne from Okpo village, Ekwulobia were excited over the cash and huge bounties from the wife of the governor.

    Obi’s wife, who was represented by the Commissioner for Women Affairs and Social Development, Dr Henrietta Agbata and the Permanent Secretary in the ministry, Mrs Nkiru Okeke, also gave gifts to the second baby of the year and third baby of the year at Holy Rosary Specialist Hospital and Maternity, Waterside, Onitsha and Enugu-Ukwu General Hospital.

    The second baby, Chinualumogu, male, weighed 3.5kg and was delivered at 1.58am while the third baby, Favour, a female weighed 3.7kg and was delivered at 2/05am.

    The parents of the second and third babies were Okpala Chukwu from Nibo in Awka South and Ijeoma Ezeani from Abagana in Njikoka Local Government Area thanked the governor’s wife for the gesture.

    Obi’ wife was able to visit 15 babies of the over 200 babies delivered in the state at both private and public hospitals in the three senatorial zones of the state yesterday.

  • All set for First Lady’s mother’s burial

    All set for First Lady’s mother’s burial

    The final burial rites for Mrs. Charity Fyneface Oba, mother of Nigeria’s First Lady, Dame Patience Jonathan, have become the biggest issue in the corridors of power at federal and state levels. Next Thursday, all roads will lead to the First Lady’s ancestral home in Okrika, Rivers State, where the burial will take place.

    To make the event truly presidential, a confidant of the First Lady, Nyesom Wike, has instituted five different planning committees to ensure a smooth ceremony. Already, many of the people that matter in the nation’s political arena and business community are falling heads over heels to be part of the event. Wike, the supervising Minister of Education, is the supervising head of the committees, which include those on Mobilisation, Transport, Medical, Accommodation and Publicity, which are headed by PDP top guns in Rivers State.

    Wike himself has been jetting in and out of Abuja and Okrika to make sure that nothing goes wrong with the event the way ASUU strike has paralysed the education sector. The late Mrs. Oba was involved in an auto crash along Elele Road in Port Harcourt on July 22 as she was travelling from her base to Yenogoa, Bayelsa State.

  • First Lady snubs Rivers deputy governor

    First Lady snubs Rivers deputy governor

    First Lady Patience Jonathan yesterday arrived in Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital, on a three-day visit.

    Mrs Jonathan is believed to be in her home state to prepare for the funeral of her mother, Madam Charity Oba, who died in a car crash last month.

    Her visit to Port Harcourt in June generated some row. Streets were blocked, causing traffic chaos in the Garden City during her seven –day stay, which was generally believed to be political because of the feud between the Federal Government and the Rivers State government. She, however, denied that her trip had any political undertone

    Ahead of her arrival, there was heavy police presence on some major roads in Port Harcourt.

    Security operatives mounted surveillance on her residence on Bauchi Road, Old GRA, Port Harcourt.

    Police spokeswoman Angela Agabe said on arrival, the First Lady flew to Okrika, her home town.

    Dame Patience was shielded from top officials of the Rivers government, including the Deputy Governor Tele Ikuru, who came to receive her at the airport.

    It was gathered last night that the Rivers government team, led by Ikuru was at the Port Harcourt International Airport, Omagwa to receive the President’s wife, but was not allowed to move to the tarmac.

    Ikuru was accompanied by the Secretary to the Rivers State Government (SSG), George Feyii, some commissioners and other top Rivers government officials.

    The impeccable source said the Presidency had earlier informed the Rivers government of the First Lady’s visit, with necessary arrangements made to make the visit memorable and hitch-free.

    The source said: “A Lieutenant Colonel approached the members of the Rivers state government’s team at the Port Harcourt International Airport and told them that they had directives from the Presidency that they should not be allowed near the First Lady.

    “Wife of the Bayelsa State Governor, Mrs. Rachael Dickson, was allowed to receive the First Lady at the airport. It was very embarrassing and annoying.”

  • Not a role model

    Not a role model

    •From her gruff and boorish conduct, Patience Jonathan is no exemplary First Lady

    At the height of General Ibrahim Babangida’s rule of total domination, Olanrewaju Adepoju, a Yoruba recording and performance poet in an LP, let out a biting rebuke, with an awesome pun on the Babangida name, a direct fallout from the June 12, 1993 presidential election annulment crisis: “Baba-ngida, Iya-ngida, Omo na ngida!” [Literally: “Daddy is involved, mummy is involved, and even the child is warming up to join the fray!”]

    In Julius Shakespeare’s Macbeth, the famed English playwright told a disapproving tale of how spousal excesses turned an otherwise good man, Macbeth, into a monster; by pushing him into regicide. Lady Macbeth’s continuous goading pushed Macbeth to kill King Duncan, his benefactor. But it also led the couple, who usurped the Scottish throne, to self-destroy.

    Both Adepoju and Shakespeare, therefore, spoke of the danger of excessive spousal interference in public office. In Adepoju’s view, the Babangida government was becoming a family affair, particularly given Mrs Maryam Babangida’s larger-than-life Better Life for Rural Women programme. Shakespeare also told a gripping dramatic tale of how Lady Macbeth destroyed her husband and herself.

    On the office and place of the First Lady, in Nigeria’s often troubled polity and politics, there perhaps would be no unanimity. But nobody can say First Lady intervention in governance is intrinsically evil.

    One thing is clear, though: the Constitution does not expressly make provision for the office. So many, clearly upset by the excesses of many a First Lady, have declared the office illegal. But that is not necessarily so. The office can earn itself a place in the mind of the populace by convention, if it is perceived to be of public good; its occupants comport themselves with decorum, honour and dignity; and are perceived to be assets, not liabilities, to the office of the President or Governor. This is more so, when the Constitution does not expressly preclude the office and activity of the First Lady.

    A caveat, here: this newspaper has, and indeed every Nigerian should have, the highest regard for the office of the Nigerian President; and that of the state Governor. Though no elected officers like their spouses, this honour and courtesy should extend to their wives (or husbands, if they are female); who are expected to reciprocate the honour with decorum and grace.

    It is on suspect comportment that First Lady, Dame Patience Jonathan, does a lot of disservice to what should be, if well handled, the institution of the First Lady.

    Even before the highly reported friction between President Goodluck Jonathan and Rivers State Governor, Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi, Mrs Jonathan had mostly generated negative vibes. Many complain of her perceived lexical challenge, making insensitive statements and also her convoy shutting down every city or town she has visited. Lagosians have an abiding bitter tale to tell of her visits. So do domiciles of Port Harcourt; still talking of a city meltdown, just because the First Lady was in town for a private wedding. What was even more galling was the reported abandonment of a function by Governor Amaechi, just because the First Lady’s security cordon had blocked every place.

    That action, extremely provocative and insensitive, should be decried by all. The impunity itself is condemnable, coming from a person who is no constitutional official of the state. Besides, to think that Mrs Jonathan was openly rubbing in the quarrel between her husband, the president and Governor Amaechi, two state officials, was proxy battle most absurd. Aside, the question of waste: so, because Mrs Jonathan was visiting, literally the whole of the Police should choke the state, in a country whose parlous security requires every hand to be on deck?

    But it was on the score of careless and tactless talk that Mrs Jonathan disrespected the office of the Rivers State Governor and undermined the honour, integrity and majesty of the Nigerian Presidency. In the midst of the cream of Rivers State, Patience Jonathan lampooned the governor, claiming, not without open spite, that Port Harcourt, the state capital, had lost its glory. In an infantile bid to win friends for a most embarrassing and thoughtless talk, she compared the present to the tenure of some past governors who were present at the occasion, leaving her guests little choice but to nod in embarrassed agreement. That was bad grace of the highest order.

    It was not even the first time Mrs Jonathan would resort to such public lampoon of a sitting governor. The first was the open spat over the Okirika waterfront resettlement scheme. On that occasion, even with the governor present, Mrs Jonathan went on a rude and crude lecture binge, haranguing the governor on his faulty diction. Her only reasons were that she was the wife of the president and also an Okirika native who had returned in glory to pillory an errant governor.

    For the president to avert a constitutional crisis, he should call his spouse to order. Under the spirit of Nigeria’s federal Constitution, not even the president can talk down on a governor. The president deserves everyone’s respect. But he is no prefect over any governor. From the presidential fiasco arising from the Nigerian Governors Forum (NGF) election, it should be clear to the president by now that even he cannot enforce powers he does not have. If the president cannot do that, what gives his spouse the conceit that she could do so? President Jonathan must not give the impression that he has been emasculated by his beloved Dame. Even if that were true, that should start and end in the presidential court; and not extend to where it can cause the president avoidable trouble.

    Mrs Jonathan should change her rather reckless, rude and crude ways. Though every Nigerian has the bounden duty to respect the high office of President, the rude conduct of his spouse exasperates everyone to want to feel otherwise. All over, Mrs Jonathan appears a liability: her controversial promotion as Permanent Secretary in the Bayelsa State Civil Service is a huge dent to the anti-corruption war; her proxy battle on behalf of her husband is a great but needless tension to Nigeria’s delicate federalism; and her rather unguarded comments on her travails, while abroad on medical tourism, was a study in lack of grace.

    President Jonathan should move to save the dignity of his Presidency from spousal assault. Even after the Jonathans must have left, the Nigerian Presidency would still be there. It behoves them then to preserve it, as others before them had tried to do, warts and all.

    A First Lady should be seen for her good deeds, and seldom heard for her rude thoughts.

  • I’m not involved in Amaechi’s suspension, says First Lady

    I’m not involved in Amaechi’s suspension, says First Lady

    First Lady Patience Jonathan yesterday denied having a hand in the suspension of Rivers State Governor Rotimi Amaechi from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) by the National Working Committee.

    In a statement last night , Senior Special Assistant to the First Lady on Media and Publicity, Mr. Ayo Osinlu described the allegation as “not only dubious, but also diversionary, unfair, unkind, and therefore totally unacceptable”.

    According to him, the First Lady is not an official of the PDP as such could not have led ‘the elders of the party by the nose’ to take such a decision.

    The statement reads “It has again come to our notice that a new twist has been introduced to the carefully orchestrated scheme to anchor the political fortunes or survival of certain embattled politicians on a deliberate demonization of the First Lady, Dame (Dr.) Patience Goodluck Jonathan.

    “We consider it laughable that it can be assumed by any sane person that the First Lady could possibly “summon” the members of the NWC of the party for the purported purpose of handing down “stern directives” on crucial party decisions.

    “We ask, on what platform? Within what contexts? In what capacity? Is it not an unfortunate insult on all the elders that constitute the NWC to insinuate that they were assembled by the First Lady, or anyone else for that matter, and instructed on positions of the party? And why couldn’t Leadership’s “investigators” name at least a few of those in attendance of this famous meeting? the statement said.

  • Court fixes May 2 for judgment in Yar’Adua wife’s suit over land

    Justice Peter Affen of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) High Court, Jabi, has fixed May 2 for judgment in a case instituted by former First Lady, Turai Yar’Adua against her successor, Patience Jonathan, following their inability to settle.

    Mrs Yar’Adua had sued, claiming that Mrs Jonathan has trespassed on the 1.84 hectares land in Abuja earlier allocated to her pet project, Women and Youth Empowerment Foundation (WAYEF).

    Joined as co-defendants in the suit are the Minister of FCT, Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA), the Abuja Geographic Information System (AGIS) and the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF).

    Yesterday, WAYEF opposed an application by the other parties for further adjournment, following which the judge informed the parties that the judgment was ready and would be delivered if parties failed to settle before May 2.

    The disputed land, plot no. 1347 Cadastral Zone AOO, Central Business District, Abuja, FCT, was initially allocated to WAYEF while Mrs Yar’adua was the First Lady.

    The FCT Minister, Bala Mohammed had revoked the allocation for what he described as “overriding public interest” and reallocated the same land to Mrs. Jonathan on the 2nd of November, 2011 for the building of the African First Lady Peace Mission headquarters.

    Mrs. Yar’Adua complained that the land allocated to WAYEF on 19 February 2010 was being trespassed upon by Mrs. Jonathan and got a court order dated 5 March 2012 restraining the defendants from affecting WAYEF’s title and interest over the land.

    WAYEF, through its lawyer, Adamu Ahmed Ibrahim and Company is asking for N1.5 billion as general damages, N100 million as exemplary damages, N100 million as aggravated damages in addition to N261 million already paid for Certificate of Occupancy as well as N454 million paid for building designs.

    WAYEF stated that while it appears that the Ministry of Justice may be interested and committed to a settlement, their terms and what they offer says otherwise.

    It said the land being offered by the FCTA was a much smaller parcel of land than the one purportedly acquired from WAYEF for the first lady

     

  • First Lady Patience Jonathan returns

    First Lady Patience Jonathan returns

    The First Lady, Dame Patience Jonathan, returned home last night from a foreign trip.

    She arrived the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport,Abuja, accompanied by her children and aides.

    A report on the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA)  showed Mrs. Jonathan returning to the country.

    She was received at the presidential wing of the airport by the wife of the Vice President, Haji Amina Sambo, and some female ministers.

    The latest foreign trip came not long after a prolonged  one to Germany, which triggered   anxiety  in the country over her health.

    During her thanksgiving service in February, she had said that she underwent nine surgeries and was dead for seven days.

    According to her, it was the grace and mercies of God that revived her.

    While there was no official statement yesterday concerning her return to the country after leaving in March, her Special Assistant on Media, Ayo Osinlu, had explained to Nigerians early in the week that the First Lady was hale and sound.

    He said: “Our attention has been attracted by some curiosity in a cross section of the public, and particularly by speculations in the media about the movement recently of Her Excellency, the First Lady, Dame (Dr.) Patience Goodluck Jonathan.

    “For the avoidance of doubts and ambiguities, we wish to state that Her Excellency had travelled  to participate in the 1st Green Women Conference, which took place in Paris, France, on March 17, 2013, where she received the Global Women Leaders’ Award for Peace,  2013.

    “Thereafter, the First Lady proceeded to Germany where her foster mother, Mama Sisi, is currently receiving medical attention. It was in her normal plan to spend some time overseeing the management of the foster mother’s condition.

    “The First Lady also decided to seize the opportunity to spend some quality time in the company of her holidaying children, before they return to school.”

  • Anxiety over First Lady Dame Jonathan

    Anxiety over First Lady Dame Jonathan

    There was widespread anxiety yesterday over the well-being of First Lady Dame Patience Jonathan.

    Speculations were rife that she may have been flown abroad for treatment after taking ill again.

    Her media aide Ayo Osinlu last night denied that his principal is ill.

    He said there was no cause for alarm.

    Before her thanksgiving last month, where she expressed gratitude to God for sparing her life after nine surgeries in one month, a similar scenario had played out.

    The Presidency consistently denied that she was ill, claiming that she only traveled abroad to rest.

    On her return, Mrs Jonathan also denied that she went for medical treatment until she opened up at her thanksgiving at the Presidential Villa on February 17.

    The First Lady, who spent several weeks in a German hospital last year, went back in January and held a thanksgiving in February.

    In a statement, Osinlu said the First Lady travelled to Paris, France to attend the First Green Women Conference; see her sick foster mother, Mama Sisi in Germany and spend time with her holidaying children.

    According to him, she is expected back in the country next week.

    The statement reads: “Our attention has been attracted by some curiosity in a cross section of the public, and particularly by speculations in the media about the movement recently of Her Excellency, the First Lady, Dame (Dr.) Patience Goodluck Jonathan.

    “For the avoidance of doubts and ambiguities, we wish to state that Her Excellency had travelled to participate in the 1st Green Women Conference, which took place in Paris, France, on March 17, 2013, where she received the Global Women Leaders’ Award for Peace, 2013.

    “Thereafter, the First Lady proceeded to Germany where her foster mother, Mama Sisi, is currently receiving medical attention. It was in her normal plan to spend some time overseeing the management of the foster mother’s condition.

    “The First Lady also decided to seize the opportunity to spend some quality time in the company of her holidaying children, before they return to school. She is expected back within the next week.

    “We wish to express appreciation for the sincere interests of those who have shown genuine concern through their enquiries.”