Their story
Mrs. Christy Edewede Aleburu (nee Otoide) was the kind of woman who left a mark on everyone she met. Not through grand gestures, but through the steady, quiet way she showed up for people every single day.
She spent years as a teacher, shaping young minds and pouring into the lives of students who still carry her influence with them today. Teaching was not just a profession for her. It was an extension of who she was. Patient, generous with her time, and deeply invested in seeing people become the best version of themselves.
Beyond the classroom, she was the person everyone gravitated toward. Her warmth was magnetic. Her smile could lighten any room, and her door was always open. She had a gift for making people feel seen and valued, whether it was family, friends, neighbours, or someone she had only just met. She was a mother to many, not just her own children.
She was fiercely hardworking. The kind of woman who would figure it out herself before asking anyone for help. I used to tell her, "What Christy Aleburu cannot do can never be done," and everyone who knew her would agree. I am sure if she had lived long enough to buy a trailer, she would have driven it herself before getting a driver. She combined that drive with a deep and unwavering faith in God that anchored everything she did and everyone around her.
What she gave to the world was not just her time or her effort. It was belief. She believed in people before they believed in themselves, and she believed in her children with a fierceness that still carries us today. She planted seeds in countless lives, many of which are still growing and bearing fruit. Her legacy is scattered across classrooms, families, communities, and the hearts of everyone fortunate enough to have known her.
She left this world when her dividends were just beginning to show, when the seeds she planted in us were starting to grow. But the values she built into us have outlasted her absence. Her love, her faith, her strength, these things did not die with her. They live on in us.
She lived fully, loved generously, and made the world better simply by being in it. I am proud to be her son.
May her soul and the souls of all the faithful departed through the mercy of God rest in peace. Amen.