He Spared My Life; Mrs. Eupheme Weeks Turns 86; Gives Praises to God

Mrs. Weeks is thankful because God has spared her life

The widow of the first Liberian-born president of the University of Liberia, Dr. Rocheforte Lafayette Weeks, has given thanks and praises to God for sparing her life to witness and mark another birthday.

Mrs. Angelique Eupheme Geraldine Weeks turned 86 on February 6, 2013. But it couldn’t have been celebrated on that day because two of her daughters would not have been around for the event.

She told me in an exclusive interview Thursday that she is smiling, not because everything is perfect, but because God has shown His goodness and faithfulness to her in the midst of it all. She strongly believes that whatever might have happened to her was God's design for her life. She appreciates God for the gift of life, thanks her children, especially her two daughters: Angelique (Pheme) and Ophelia (Fifi), for their non-stop love and support and for praying for her.

Mrs. Weeks narrowly escaped death recently when doctors in Monrovia found that ninety nine percent of her main artery (blood vessel) was closed. They advised that if she had stayed a day or two here, she would have been dead. She had to be flown out of the country immediately. Luckily, her daughter, Angelique Weeks, chair of the Liberia Telecommunication Authority (LTA), was willing to sacrifice whatever she had struggled to achieve in her life, only to see her mom on her feet once again.

Moved by an abiding love for her mother, Angelique did exactly what any caring child would do for a parent, especially a mother: she had a chartered flight take her mother to London, England, where the old lady underwent surgery to medically correct her situation.

“They wanted to take me to Ghana, but Ghana said they didn’t have the instruments. They wanted to take me to Las Palmas, but it was too expensive. They wanted to take me to the States, but the doctor said I wouldn’t have made through the long journey. The closest place was London.  I could have died in the air,” Mrs. Weeks said, her face beaming with smiles.

At one point, the doctor and the pilot began debating over whether this woman would have made it all at. They didn’t think so. But, Angelique’s faith was firmly-grounded in God’s power to deliver her mother and so, she didn’t give in to what the doctor had predicted.

“She knew God would have brought me through. We were six on the flight. She had the faith. Otherwise, I would have been history,” Mrs. Weeks went on.

This wasn’t the first time Mrs. Weeks had fallen that ill. Back in 2004, she ended up spending four weeks in a hospital in Florida as a result of a cardiac condition. “I had gone there to spend Christmas with Ophelia. And on the day I was leaving the hospital, the doctor said she didn’t think I would have walked out,” she recalled. 

So, for all these blessings, this 86-year-old told her children, she desired only one thing for her birthday:  to give thanks and praises to God. “When my birthday was approaching, my children asked me what I wanted for birthday, and I said: ‘I want only one thing and that’s a thanksgiving service because God has blessed me so many times. The only thing I want for my birthday is to thank Him,’” she said. 

The thanksgiving service was held Saturday, April 6, at Reeves Memorial United Methodist Church in Crozierville, Lower Montserrado County, Liberia.

BEGINNINGS

Emma Juliet Stewart Cooper was the mother of Mrs. Angelique Eupheme Geraldine Weeks. Unfortunately, she knows very little about her mother, whom she lost when she was only five. “My mother died when I was five years old. She died and left five children. Following her death, the children were divided among friends and family members until our family could get situated once more. The woman who raised my mother, Mrs. Isabella Kecia Ferguson, took the two girls (my sister and me); my father kept Llewellyn and Daubeny, and the baby was taken care of by my aunt,” the 86-year-old recalled.

“I started my early schooling in Maryland County at St. Mark’s Parish Day School. I was born in Maryland. I schooled there up to grade eight before coming to Monrovia. I lived with the late Mrs. Magdalene (Maggie) Dennis, my cousin.  Maggie Cooper Dennis, one time wife of Treasury Secretary William E. Dennis, Sr., was an outstanding nurse, often referred to as Liberia’s Florence Nightingale. 

“I tried to get into the College of West Africa (CWA) but that didn’t work. So, I ended up at Lab High, the high school division of Liberia College (now University of Liberia), where I got through with my secondary studies. I got a scholarship to Howard University in the United States. I did not graduate from Howard because my husband, the late Dr. Rocheforte L. Weeks, who was also at Howard, went on to Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, to study law and so I went along with him. And there, I went to Ithaca College, where I graduated with a degree in Business Administration,” she narrated.

Mrs. Weeks’ maternal grandfather was French. Her mother was reared by the late Isabella Kecia Ferguson, who was also related to her father, Daubeny Bartholomew Cooper, a lawyer. Mrs. Ferguson was the wife of the son of the first black  Episcopal Bishop, Samuel Ferguson.

   How Mrs. Weeks Met Her Lifetime Companion

“We were all young folks in Monrovia. He, Rocheforte L. Weeks, was interested in law. So, he started coming to my father’s house to discuss law, because my father was a lawyer. We became friends and fortunately, we traveled together on the same ship from here to the United States for further studies. That was in August 1949. Then we went to the same school. We started a relationship here. My father didn’t know about it. Nobody knew. But I knew. So, by the time we got to the States, the relationship was even stronger. We got married at Howard. I didn’t waste any time. And neither did he. My father didn’t know about the marriage and when he found out, he almost disowned me. He didn’t write to me for two year, and stopped sending my allowance. He was angry because he had desired so much to walk his daughter up the aisles and his daughter had disappointed him. I wasn’t afraid because I knew what I wanted.”

Dr. & Mrs. Weeks and children

But after two years, she received a communication from her father with some money. In that letter, Mr. Daubeny Bartholomew Cooper informed his daughter that her [deceased] mother had appeared to him in a dream and said to him that “there is no bad bush to throw your child.” And that marked the end of the bitterness between her father and her.

She took time to describe the father of her children in these words: “I had an intelligent man, a hard worker, an excellent husband and a father, but he used to like the girls. And I used to get angry. But he was so intelligent. He always said to me, ‘Eupheme, I don’t know why you worry. I’m for you.’

“And I would say ‘Well, it seems like you (are) for all of us.’ Then he would say ‘You’re too jealous.’ But he was a nice man, very respectful. With all of his social activities, he never disrespected me once. Whenever I was around, I was the boss. And all of his other children called me ‘mommy’. I didn’t allow my disdain for his extra activities to affect the kids because it wasn’t their fault. I love them all and they take excellent care of me; they are very nice to me. They remember my birthday and are always checking on me.”

THE CHILDREN

Eupheme got married on April 1, 1950 and by September; she had her first boy, Rocheforte L. Weeks, Jr. She is a mother of eight children (six boys and two girls): Rocheforte Weeks Jr. was born on September 26, 1950 and by November 4, 1951, Ophelia Weeks was born. Julius Weeks came on December 21, 1953; Vito Weeks was born on March 23, 1956. On December 29, 1957 came Alex Weeks and Angelique Weeks came on April 3, 1959, the same year President Tubman appointed Rocheforte, Sr. as the first Liberian president of the University of Liberia. On March 8, 1962 was born Milton Weeks; while Renauld Weeks was born on June 21, 1965.

The first six children

 A father of three, Rocheforte Weeks Jr., is a successful businessman. Prior to the 1980 coup, he owned an electrical engineering company in Liberia called   LUCI. Ophelia, the second offspring, holds a PhD in Neuro-anatomy from Howard University. She once served as full professor at Florida International University. She is currently back home and chairs the School of Science and Technology at the University of Liberia.  For 26 years Julius worked in administrative support at a Washington law firm (Jones Day) as a pattern prosecution and litigation support. He is a father of one. Vito (Vittorio A. Jesus) Weeks is a certified public accountant in charge of the accounting system at Prince George’s School System in Prince George’s County, Maryland, USA. He was a member of “The Revelation Four” and served as a founding editor of The Revelation Magazine in 1973. He later became Editor-in-Chief of that ground-breaking publication.    

Alex, a father of three, is an engineer by profession. For the past 20 years, he has served as the management information system chief at the London Printing College. Angelique is the current chair of the LTA. She once worked in the legal department of the Pennsylvania Electric Company. Milton is a father of two. He studied finance at Syracuse University, and at 24, in the 1980s, became the treasurer of Citibank, Monrovia. He later worked for Standard Bank of South Africa and became managing director of the bank’s entire Nigerian operations. Milton returned home in mid-2000s to open his own financial management and consultancy firm, Devin Corporation, in Monrovia. Ranauld has two children and is a process engineer. He currently works for a chemical engineering firm in Abu Dhabi.  

Dr. Rocheforte L. Weeks’ “other children” include: Preston Weeks, an accountant; Bendu Weeks (deceased); Jarsie Weeks a micro-biologist, (who looks like an identical twin to her sister Angelique).

Rhoda Weeks, who graduated valedictorian of her class at Ricks Institute, Virginia, Liberia, is a Harvard trained lawyer and the Law School contemporary of US President Barrack Obama. She is currently Deputy Chief of the Legal Department of the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

Other Rocheforte children are Terrence Weeks; Rochelle Weeks, a nurse; Madea Weeks; Lela Weeks, a businesswoman; Nathaniel Weeks, a farmer; and Kimmie Weeks, who became at 17 a UNICEF ambassador.  He runs an international organization rendering humanitarian assistance especially to children, and serves as director of communication for CELLCOM, a GSM service provider in Liberia, and also Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Liberia Water and Sewer Corporation. 

“I was in school, married and having children. It wasn’t easy at all. Rocheforte used to work at night. There was a company called Morse Chain, a high-quality domestic roller chain store. I used to work at a store called Five and Dime. I used to work there in the afternoon. After awhile, he stopped me from working there. He said ‘I will do the work. You stay at home and take care of the children.’ He worked. I didn’t. All this time, I was in school at Ithaca College,” Mrs. Weeks narrated.

As she celebrates her 86th birthday, this is the message Mrs. Weeks wishes to give her children: “I just want you (my children) to always put God first; to have faith in God because if you do, and are sincere, the Lord will always bless you and remain with you. You shouldn’t let any position or anybody ruin your mind because corruption is plenty around here. We have to be strong and the only way to be strong is to depend on God.”

Mrs. Weeks has nine grandchildren and four great-grand children. Her siblings include Llewellyn Cooper, Daubeny Cooper, Cynthia Cooper, Gerald Cooper, Randolph Cooper, Trypetus Cooper and Seward Cooper.