Hers is a life dedicated to serving humanity
By Pade OLAPOJU
If one can summarise the 97 years of Chief Mrs. Olufunke Arthur Worrey in just one word, that word is Grace. Divine grace sums up everything about this elegant nonagenarian.
Life has been good to Aunty Funke, as she’s popularly called. And why won’t life be good to her? She is one woman who has committed a greater part of her life to impacting on people. She is mother, grandmother, philanthropist, a giver, lover of the young and also a young at heart. These and many more are the passions she share with her late lawyer-husband, Queen’s Counsel, Steady Arthur-Worrey.
Mrs. Arthur Worrey was an Executive Member of the Nigerian Federation of Business and Professional Women and a member of the National Council of Women’s Society. She was the past President of International Women’s Society as well as the Society’s Head of Trustees. She served the society so well that a garden, “Funke Arthur Worrey Garden was named after her at the Society’s headquarters along Lekki-Epe Expressway.
She was a Charter Member of and Past President of Ikeja Lioness Club now known as Ikeja Golden Lions Club. She is a Melvin Jones Fellow, the highest honour conferred by the International Association of Lions Clubs for commitment to philanthropic acts.
The things men carry are much. You don’t know their value until you lose them. They go through a lot, but they don’t show it because they want their wives to be happy
She is also a recipient of many outstanding awards, including the District Governor’s Merit Award, the District President’s Award for Outstanding Service, and a President’s Meritorious Award.
She is also a champion of women emancipation as she told this reporter: “One of the reasons I want Nigerian women to go into politics is to show our men that we can do it better. If you put a woman there everything will work. Of course, I’m advocating for a female president. I’m so confident of Nigerian women. And whether we like it or not, Nigeria will produce a female president someday”.
On how she’s been coping without her late husband, she said: “It’s not easy. We were like twins. We used to think alike. He was a good man and he loved Lionism. He was always bringing ‘stray’ children home to live with us… the first time I travelled after his death was the first time in my life that I knew that one needs to fill forms when you are travelling. The things men carry are much. You don’t know their value until you lose them. They go through a lot, but they don’t show it because they want their wives to be happy.”
Aunty Funke was born into the Lagos royal family of Ogunmade Onile Gbale Chieftaincy House, Isale Eko. She was a sister to the late Chief H.O. Davies, a popular Lagos legal luminary. On Tuesday, 23rd April, she will be cutting her birthday cake of 97 candles at her home in Victoria Island, Lagos.
