Mary Amedia de Souza passed away peacefully on February 2, 2024, at Our Lady of Perpetual Help Hospice in Atlanta, Georgia.

Amedia was born on April 18, 1939, in Abadan, Persia (modern-day Iran) where her father was working for a British oil company as an expatriate from Goa, India. At the age of six, Amedia and her older sister, Thelma, began their education at a Catholic boarding school in Hubli-Dharwar, India. The girls, having completed their schooling in 1960, reunited with their parents and siblings in Bombay (Mumbai), India where the family resettled after their father’s retirement.

Working as a schoolteacher at Holy Name High School in Colaba, she met her husband, Remigio “Remi” de Souza, whom she married in November 1964. The couple went on to have two daughters, Bertha and Valerie, while Remi, a civil engineer, worked on projects throughout India.

The family emigrated to the United States in 1972 to build a better life for their daughters. Living in Maryland for many years, Amedia was primarily a homemaker who lovingly cared for her family and made many friends. She developed a passion for cooking, treating family, friends, and guests to scrumptious and memorable meals. After retiring in 2009, the couple moved to Atlanta to be near their daughters.

Through all of life’s joys and sorrows Amedia held steadfast to her abiding faith in God and found great comfort in her love for the Blessed Virgin Mary, St. Jude, and especially St. Peregrine, whom she turned to following her first cancer diagnosis in 2001. Twenty-two years later, she received news of her fourth cancer – inoperable pancreatic cancer. Having beaten the disease three times before, Amedia determinedly underwent daily radiation sessions and continuous chemotherapy for four weeks. However, this proved to be too debilitating and she entered hospice care on the Feast of the Assumption (August 15, 2023).

On the Feast of the Presentation of Our Lord, Amedia joined her parents, Lily and José, and her sister, Thelma, in His Eternal Paradise. She is survived by her husband, Remi, her daughters, Bertha and Valerie (Mark), her granddaughter, Lindsay, her brothers, Wasy (Jacqueline) and Francis, and her sister, Gemma.

Requiescat in Pace, Amedia.

N.B. It was Amedia’s wish that any memorial tributes be made in the form of charitable donations to:

Our Lady of Perpetual Help Hospice, 760 Pollard Boulevard, Atlanta, GA 30315

Georgia Cremation in Duluth in assisting the family.