Late Grace Nortey’s daughters pay tribute: You gave us what you did not have || Macqathylive Media

 

The five daughters of Grace Nortey, the veteran actress who died in August aged 89, remembered her as a mother who gave them the loving home she never had.

Their tribute was read at her funeral at the State House forecourt in Accra on Saturday.

Actress Sheila Nortey struggled to hold back tears as she read it, in a video shared on Instagram by The 1957 News.

The daughters are Vida Enchill, Andriana Nortey, Barbara Tabi, Sheila Nortey and Rita Nortey. They said their mother lost both parents early and was raised by different relatives.

She made sure they learned to cook, clean, do laundry, iron and run a home, with each of them taking turns at the chores whether they liked it or not.

They said she disciplined them when she had to, and that they now understand why.

She married their father, Archibald Nortey, in her teens, and they stayed together until he died in his seventies.

She drew on that marriage to counsel couples, the daughters said, and was a sought-after okyeame at engagement ceremonies.

She found radio and acting while working with the Ghana Education Service and took them up fully after she retired. Some of the daughters rehearsed her scripts with her at home.

Her career gave her many more children, they said, as people came to see her as a role model