REMEMBERING H.E. MRS THERESE STRIGGNER-SCOTT

I first met Mrs. Therese Striggner-Scott, then Mrs. Dadzie, when I was posted to the Ghana Embassy, Paris, France in June 1969 as Second Secretary under her first husband, Ambassador E.K. Dadzie of blessed memory. He was an affable, suave, diligent man, who was very much sought after as a guest by his many diplomatic colleagues.

That first meeting with Therese was at the reception given by her and her husband at the Embassy premises, 8 Villa Said, to celebrate the 9th Anniversary of Ghana’s Republic Day on 1st July.

In diplomatic circles, her reputation had preceded her from Romania, as an avid and serious collector of fine works of Art, including Fabergé Eggs and Russian Icons, as well as a variety of great Nigerian pieces. She was a woman who liked to be surrounded by, and her houses filled with, her beautiful and choice collections.

She was simply and beautifully dressed, with her hair well coiffured, as she exuded an air of great elegance. I liked her warm and welcoming smile, which would light up her face, and so too her deep voice, which was pleasant to listen to.

We got on quite well and continued with our friendship even after she left Paris on the reposting of her first husband, Ambassador E. K. Dadzie. I owe her a debt of gratitude for being instrumental in bringing my late son, George Kofi Abraham then about five years old, to join me by making a detour through Paris, on her way to London in August 1969.

We kept in touch as our paths crossed now and then. When I decided to take our daughters, Sandra and Estelle, on a visit to Paris in 1990, where she was then serving in her own right as Ghana’s Ambassador to France, I called and asked her if she would let her driver meet us. She kindly and graciously acquiesced to my request, and had us collected from the Coach Terminal, with a hamper thoughtfully filled with assorted cooked food, and delivered safely to our lodgings.

Sandra and Estelle were delighted to meet her in person when she invited us to her tastefully and impressively furnished Residence on the second floor of 6 Boulevard Suchet near the Bois de Boulogne, overlooking M. Marcel Dassault’s residence, with its garden dotted with a display of gnomes. The Residence was nothing in comparison to what it was like in the 1960s, when it was occupied by the 2nd in command, the Head of Chancellery, or to the flat on the 3rd floor (above hers) where I had lived during my posting to Paris.

We continued to keep in touch, and when I told her of Kofi’s demise in Santa Cruz, California on July 4th this year, just about two months before her own passing as it turned out, she was very sorry to hear the news. It was therefore, an unexpected shock when I heard that she herself had passed away.

May her gentle soul rest in perfect peace.