Two Executive Mansion Reporters’ Mother Laid To Rest

The edifice of the First Assembly of God Church located in the densely populated community of Clara Town on Bushrod Island, was on Saturday, November 5, 2011 a place of wailing and weeping as well as tribute paying when wakekeeping over the remains of Madam Martha Slenyennoh- Gbaysee-Parley was held at 10:00 O’clock in the morning.

Two of the deceased’s children, Liberia Broadcasting System Sub-Editor and Executive Mansion Correspondent Jacob N.B. Parley and his younger brother (New Dawn Newspaper’s Executive Mansion Reporter Winston W. Parley) were among several other children of the fallen River Gee citizen, including scores of family members, friends and well-wishers, who paid their last respect to MaMartha, as she was affectionately called.

Journalist Jacob Parley described the death of their mother as a great loss not only to the Parley family but the entire River Gee County.

In a tune of agony, the Liberian broadcast journalist and former Press Union of Liberia Vice President said while it is true that his mother crossed three scores and ten, the Biblical lifespan of average human beings, ‘she was still meaningful to the entire family because if she did not make large rice farms to send them to school, they would not have reached to where some of them are today.

He however noted that no one can question God for his decisions, regarding when someone will be called home to rest. He said upon a message from River Gee County that Ma-Martha Parley had developed eyes problem at the fall of 1997, they immediately sent for her in an effort to find a medical solution to the illness.

Mr. Parley said all efforts by them to relieve their mother of the problem did not materialize as she totally lost her entire sight in 1998 while in their care in Monrovia. Mr. Parley further indicated that despite the condition, they could sit with her to lecture and share jokes over the past ten years.

However, Mr. Parley said “the old-ma complaint of fever and was hospitalized at the Redemption Hospital where she died on October 23, about ten days after being admitted.”

In a funeral discourse, Reverend Esther S. Parley- Teh, Founder and Pastor –In-Charge of the Conquerors Assembly of God Church in S.K. Doe Community, Bushrod Island, called on the bereaved family to keep courage in the Lord as Job did in all his trials.

Rev. Esther S. Parley, who is one of the daughters of the deceased, said despite Ma-Martha’s suffering and blindness over a decade, she did not stop serving God. She admonished Christians to take note that God’s committed children are most often targeted by the agents of Satan and his followers in various forms.

The late Martha SlenyennohGbaysee-Parley was born unto the union of the late Mr. and Mrs. Sai Gbaysee in Tienpo Cheboken, River Gee County (then lower Grand Gedeh) in 1926.

She was given up to the late Philip Quayee Parley of ChedepoKlaboken, River Gee County in a traditional marriage at the age of 19, a marriage that lasted for 51 years up to 1996 when her husband predeceased her.

The union was blessed with five biological children and several non-biological ones, 19 grand -children and 20 great-grand –children. Her remains were laid to rest at the Brewerville Cemetery, outside Monrovia.