A memorial service was on Monday held at the Church of the Holy Rosary, David Street, Kitty, in celebration of the life of Mrs. Pamela Iola Mittelholzer, nee Miranda, veteran Social Worker, retired Nurse/Midwife and NGO Director, who after a life of dedicated service to humanity, died at the King’s College Hospital, London, England, on March 22, following a brief illness.

In 1958, at 17, Pamela Miranda, daughter of Elsie and Ivelaw Miranda of Sandy Babb Street, Kitty, migrated to England, to pursue a nursing career. After working for several years at the Broad Green Hospital, Liverpool, and other hospitals in England, out of a desire to serve the country of her birth, she and her husband Malcolm, leaving their two adult children, returned to Guyana in 1998, where they resided until February last when she fell ill.

During those ten years in Guyana, which she conceded were the ‘best years of her life’ Auntie Pam, as she had come to be called, lived a full and rewarding life, dedicating her time and energies to making others happy.

In the many glowing tributes at the Monday’s service, she was remembered as a woman who gave beyond measure. Her sister Elva Didier eulogised her as: “kind; dedicated, caring and compassionate, hardworking, diligent, a great teacher, leader and congenial organiser.”

In Guyana she worked as Co-Director of the Canadian Health Services International Programme; PMTCT Adviser/Officer for the Guyana HIV/AIDS Reduction and Prevention Programme; assisted in setting up the first HIV/AIDS Hospice care facility in Georgetown; was involved in the work of several leading organisations, including the Association of Guyanese Nurses and Allied Professionals in the UK (AGNAP); was an executive of the NGO – Friends of the Georgetown Hospital; assisted the growth and development of the Guyana Sickle Cell Association, the Guyana Cancer Society, the Periwinkle Cancer Support Group, the Guyana Responsible Parenthood Association, the Guyana Nurses’ Association, and finally, the Catholic Relief Services (CRS) as the Palliative Care Programme Manager where she set up a hospice for cancer patients.

But not least, was her involvement with the Programme on Abstinence for Guyana, for which she had come to be seen as the backbone.