Bahi Oueida, matriarch and family leader of faith, courage and humor, passed away in the early morning hours of September 22, 2016 in Winchester, Massachusetts. She was 88 years old.

She was born Bahi Habiby on February 11, 1928 in Haifa, Palestine. She was the second of Wadie and Aniseh Habiby’s nine children. She graduated from The Friends Quaker school in Ramallah. She helped finance her own education there by working at the school during off-hours, becoming a teacher when she turned 18 years old. Her studious nature shone through these early years when she gained an encyclopedic knowledge of the Bible.

In January 1948 she married Farid Oueida, a fellow member of the choir of the strong Anglican Christian community in Haifa at that time. Their marriage would last more than 50 years until Farid’s passing in 2000.

In 1948 they fled the war in Palestine to settle in Beirut, Lebanon where they raised their family over the next two decades, with an interruption of ten years in Damascus, Syria, shepherding their four children, May Kamalick, Lina Kopty, Solomon Owayda, and Salam McFarland Haddad through their early years’ schooling and faith.

Bahi remained strong in the face of another unstable political environment where violence became the norm. At the outbreak of the Lebanese civil war in 1976, she fled again with Farid to Egypt where they lived for a decade.

In the 1980s the Oueidas joined many members of the family in Houston, Texas and became active members of St. Dunstan’s Episcopal Church for more than twenty years. Bahi moved to Winchester, Massachusetts in January 2013 to be close to her son and his family, and became a member of Parish of the Epiphany in Winchester.

Bahi was famous for many attributes, including storytelling of heritage stories, a strong faith in God, a love of Jesus Christ, a phenomenal loyalty to her children, grandchildren, and relatives. She was also an outstanding cook, with Palestinian traditional meals as her forté. The taste of her dishes are sadly gone with her; for while we may keep the precious recipes, no one can ever cook them as well as “Mama” did.

Bahi kept an unwavering and stabilizing faith in God through Christ during life’s trials and joys alike. She kept a smart sense of humor, which combined with her knowledge always entertained and educated her children, grandchildren and guests. She could also play a mean, rhythmic derbake drum.

Bahi is survived by seven of her siblings and her sister-in-law, four children and their families, including eight grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren.

Two funeral services will be held for Bahi in her two spiritual homes. The first is at the Parish of the Epiphany: http://www.3crowns.org in Winchester, MA on Tuesday, September 27 at 11 a.m. with visitation the day before in Lane Funeral Home: http://lanefuneral.com on Monday September 26, 5:30-7:30 pm.
The second is at Saint Dunstan’s Episcopal Church in Houston, TX http://saintdunstans.org
Monday, October 3rd at 3 pm, with Internment of Ashes, and a reception at the church immediately afterwards.

The family requests that in lieu of flowers gift donations are offered in memory of Bahi Oueida to Parish of the Epiphany, Winchester, MA http://www.3crowns.org or to Saint Dunstan’s church, Houston, TX http://saintdunstans.org Or to American Friends of the Episcopal Diocese of Jerusalem http://afedj.org