17th March, 2023
The General Overseer of the Guiding Light Assembly Pastor Wale Adefarasin and the Prelate and Metropolitan Senior Pastor of House on the Rock Pastor Paul Adefarasin buried their mom, Hilda Adefarasin, on Friday.
The funeral service took place at Guiding Light Assembly, Layi Ajayi-Bembe Road, Parkview Estate, Ikoyi, Lagos.
The event was attended by many clerics and celebrities.
Hilda died on the 5th of February at age 98.
She was born in Lagos to the family of Wilford and Ethel Petgrave in 1925. Her father, who was born in Jamaica, worked with the Nigerian Railway in Lagos, and her mother (née Ambleston) was born in Antigua.
Adefarasin attended CMS Girl’s School in Lagos. She also attended Achimota College, in Ghana. In 1945, she became a pupil-midwife with Massey Street Hospital but in 1948, she traveled to England, where she qualified as a registered nurse in 1951.
In 1960, she was a founding member and secretary of the Professional Association of Trained Nurses of Nigeria and soon joined the National Council of Women’s Societies as a representative of nurses.
In 1971, she became the council’s treasurer, holding that position until 1980.
In 1984, Adefarasin succeeded Justice Nzeako as president of NCWS. Her selection continued a string of educated elite women presidents of NCWS. Adefarasin felt the forum was an association of varied women with diverse professional interests who create awareness for women’s recognition in national life and nation-building.
The NCWS during her tenure promoted an Expanded Programme on Immunization and operational theatres for young girls with vesicovaginal fistula.
Adefarasin was one out of two women who were nominated by President Ibrahim Babangida as members of the 1986 Political Bureau.