When a Great Soul Leaves Us

In memory of Hirut Befecadu — Abaye Hirut

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Editor’s Foreword

The Tribune concerns itself, for the most part, with power — how it is gathered, guarded, contested, and abused. We turn far less often to the quieter architecture that holds a community upright between its crises: the conveners, the mentors, the keepers of a people’s stories. Yet these are the figures without whom no institution outlives its founders. Their leadership rarely makes a headline. Their passing deserves more than a line.

Hirut Befecadu — Abaye Hirut, or Madam Hirut, to the many who loved her — was such a figure. For a generation of Ethiopian Toastmasters and Rotarians she was, in the words of the reflection that follows, the reference library and the institutional memory of an entire community: a witty speaker, a generous mentor, a leader who possessed the rarer gift of making others feel seen. She belonged to that small company of people who do not so much join an institution as become its living record.

We publish this tribute not only as an act of mourning but because it speaks to a preoccupation this paper has never abandoned. The reflection that follows reaches for Daniel Wegner’s idea of transactive memory — the recognition that we do not carry our lives wholly within ourselves, but entrust them to the minds and hearts of those around us. When such a person dies, a community loses more than a member. It loses a witness, an archive, a portion of its own memory. That loss is precisely the kind this paper exists to register and, where it can, to resist.

What follows is the personal testimony of Tazaxio Meqdela Mekuria, who counted Abaye Hirut among the people he looked up to, walked beside, and learned from. We have left it largely as he wrote it, in the conviction that the most honest tributes are those a friend sets down in his own voice, in his own grief. To her family, and to the Toastmasters and Rotary communities she helped to build, the Tribune extends its condolences. May her memory remain, as the best memories do, distributed widely and held with care.

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A Friend Remembers

By Tazaxio Meqdela Mekuria

ታዛዥዎ መቅደላ መኩሪያ

A decade or so ago, I came across a powerful idea from Tai Lopez’s Law of 33%. He suggests that we should intentionally build our lives around three groups of people: those we can look up to for inspiration and guidance, those who walk beside us as peers and challenge us to grow, and those whom we can support, mentor, and help along the way.

One of the greatest gifts Toastmasters has given me is exactly that. It has connected me with remarkable people from different walks of life, generations, professions, and backgrounds. It is like a vast living library where every person is a book filled with wisdom, stories, experiences, and lessons waiting to be discovered.

Among those treasured souls was Hirut Befecadu, whom we joyfully call Abaye Hirut or Madam Hirut — energetic and full of wisdom. When I met her fourteen years ago she was in her early seventies, young at heart, and someone who could bring light to everything she was part of; it didn’t take me long to have her in my 33% and call her a dear friend.

Abaye Hirut was a testament to what a true Toastmaster and a Rotarian is. For many, she was the reference library and the institutional memory of the Ethiopian Toastmasters and Rotary community, and a mother figure to many of us. She was a witty speaker, a gifted mentor, a true leader, and someone whose presence made people feel seen, valued, and encouraged. But for me, above all else, she was my sounding board, my confidant, and my Abaye. Every conversation we had, every laughter we shared, and every humour-flavoured moment was filled with wisdom, life lessons, and lots of takeaways.

As I reflect on her passing, I am reminded of psychologist Daniel Wegner’s concept of transactive memory, beautifully referenced by Malcolm Gladwell in The Bomber Mafia. The idea is simple yet profound: we do not store all our memories within ourselves. We store parts of our lives in the minds and hearts of the people around us.

When we lose someone with whom we have shared years of friendship, learning, laughter, and purpose, we lose more than a person. We lose a keeper of our stories, a witness to our journey, and a part of our collective memory. In a very real sense, a piece of us leaves with them.

That is why communities matter. That is why friendships matter. That is why mentors matter.

Abaye Hirut leaves behind a legacy of service, leadership, wisdom, and kindness that will continue to live through the countless lives she touched.

As I mourn her passing and bid farewell to this formidable soul, I want to celebrate her — a life exceptionally lived, a legacy generously shared, and a friendship that has made me by far a better person.

My deepest condolences go to her family, friends, fellow Toastmasters, and the Rotary community.

May her beautiful soul rest in eternal peace.