The Quintessential Lady — The Elixir of Gambian Feminine Excellence and Dignity — The Inspirational Beacon and Community Lighthouse — Now Called Into Our Lord's Graceful Glory
“O Lord my God, when I, in awesome wonder consider all the worlds Thy hands have made ……… I turn to Thee for solace”(Christian Hymn: “How Great Thou Art”)
It is with a heart made heavy by grief and yet made light by gratitude that we receive and announce — no, that we whisper through tears — the passing into glory, yesterday 17th September 2016 around midnight, of our beloved Grandmother, Auntie, Cousin, Sister, Mother And Our Forever Friend — Ya Sarah Goddard-Joof, commonly and fondly known as Ya Sarah.
She has not died. She has been transplanted.
From the Cathedral below to the Cathedral above.
I. THERE ARE GOODBYES THAT LANGUAGE CANNOT CARRY
There are some goodbyes that words cannot properly carry. This is one of them.
There are women who pass through our lives and leave footprints. And there are women who pass through our lives and leave foundations.
Ya Sarah indeed left a foundation.
She was of that vanishing breed of Banjul Catholic women, nay “Gigane Kertien Yi” who understood that elegance was not in fabric but in comportment, that dignity was not in volume but in restraint, that faith was not in proclamation but in practice.
She was quintessentially Banjulian — soft-spoken but steel-spined, humorous but holy, traditional yet never tribal.
In her, the Catholic Church in The Gambia found not merely a member, but a pillar; not merely a parishioner, but a patroness of piety; not merely a woman who went to Church, but a woman in whom the Church lived.
Professionally, she gave the best years of her life to the British High Commission in The Gambia, serving with distinction in the Visa Section and other departments until honourable retirement.
She stamped passports, but more importantly, she stamped upon every applicant, every colleague, every messenger who entered that office, the indelible ink of courtesy.
In an institution known for strictness, she was known for grace.
But her greatest employment was never at the High Commission.
It was at the altar of her home.
II. THE PRAYER CORNER — WHERE HEAVEN TOUCHED DOBSON STREET
If you ever entered Ya Sarah's living room, you knew immediately who owned the house. Not Ya Sarah.
God owned it.
In a corner, intentionally chosen, reverently kept, stood her little sanctuary — a throne for the Queen of Heaven.
Statues of Mary, statues of Jesus, patron saints standing guard like honourable sentries, rosary beads worn smoothed by decades of Hail Marys.
And a chair. One simple chair where she sat, morning and evening, to keep her appointment with Eternity.
Morning and evening, she made time for God when the world makes excuses.
She did not pray like one reciting.
She prayed like one remembering.
She remembered her family.
She remembered friends.
She remembered people who were in desperate or dire need, people whose names we may never know, but whom God knew because Ya Sarah had mentioned them.
That is why this loss feels so vast.
A prayer warrior has laid down her rosary.
Who will now mention our names at 5 a.m. when the city still sleeps?
Her contribution to the Roman Catholic Church in The Gambia can never be overstated.
At the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Assumption in Banjul, she was a stalwart of the Catholic Women's Organisation — not a title-seeker, but a work-doer.
She cooked, she cleaned, she organized, she comforted, she contributed, she counselled.
She believed, as St. Francis taught, that you preach the Gospel always, and when necessary, you use words.
For Ya Sarah, Christianity was not a Sunday dress.
It was indeed a daily uniform.
Like Sarah, the biblical matriarch for whom she was named, her life taught us that faith is not about perfection, but about perseverance — growing in trust through struggle, through doubt, through widowhood, through waiting, through laughter and through tears.
111. THE MEASURE OF A LADY
What makes a lady? Not lipstick. Not lace.
A lady is measured by how she makes others feel after they have left her presence.
Ya Sarah made you feel seen. She made you feel that your story mattered. She believed that families should stand together, that neighbours should be visited, that the sick should not be forgotten, that a community is only a community when someone is willing to be its lighthouse.
That is why her departure is not merely the loss of one person. It is an eclipse.
A family has lost a mother, grandmother, sister and confidante.
Friends have lost a counsellor, a comedian, a companion.
The Church has lost a pillar from its nave.
Banjul has lost a rose from its cathedral garden.
The Gambia has lost an elixir of feminine excellence — proof that you can be gentle and unbreakable at once.
The world continues moving, but something inside us has changed.
For there are people who occupy space. And there are people who occupy us.
Ya Sarah occupied us.
V. A PRAYER IN THE TONGUE SHE LOVED
None of us leaves this world without shortcomings.
We are human. We falter.
Sometimes knowingly, sometimes without realizing the ripples our actions have caused.
So today, we ask the Lord of Mercy to look upon His handmaiden with infinite compassion.
May the earth that receives you be light upon you.
May it be cool upon you.
May your tomb be spacious and luminous.
May the Virgin Mary, whom you loved and served, now wrap you in her mantle and lead you by the hand to her Son.
CONCLUSION — THE ROSARY IS FINISHED, BUT THE PRAYER CONTINUES
There are those who pass through our lives and leave memories behind.
Then there are those whose presence becomes part of who we are, part of our own breathing.
Ya Sarah, you were indeed one of those people.
Your absence will be felt in ways that language cannot fully encircle.
But your memory will live — in the children that you raised, in the grandchildren who carry your cheekbones and your chuckle, in the Cathedral whose pews still hold the warmth of your sitting, in the prayer corner that now prays for you, and in the laughter that you left behind like incense.
Sleep well, my forever friend, Ya Sarah.
Now, take your most comfortable rest.
You have carried your earthly pilgrimage with grace, with grit, with saint-like piety.
Until we meet again,
I will continue to miss you.
The Church will continue to miss you.
Banjul will continue to miss you.
The Gambia will continue to miss you.
May the good Lord, whom you served, also receive you with graceful mercy.
May your soul, and the souls of all the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in perfect peace.
Amen. Amen. Amen.
Our heartfelt condolences and deepest sympathies are hereby being extended to the Goddard and Joof families, singularly to her beloved children Maggie and Emmanuel Paps as well as her dear grandchildren.
Hassan Gibril
(Your Beloved Brother, Your Dear Friend — Forever Indebted For The Laughter And The Prayers …….Written In Tears — For Ya Sarah Goddard-Joof — The Lady Who Made Faith Look Like Elegance And Elegance Look Like Faith).
