Khalifa bestows award on ‘Doctora Latifa’

ABU DHABI — The President, His Highness Shaikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, bestowed the Medal of Independence of the Third Order on the late Canadian nurse Gertrude Dyke, otherwise known as Gert, or as Doctora Latifa, in recognition of her efforts and rich career which she started in 1962 at Al Waha Hospital in Al Ain.

By (Wam)

Published: Tue 30 Nov 2010, 1:35 AM

Last updated: Mon 6 Apr 2015, 4:13 PM

On behalf of Shaikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Presidential Affairs and Chairman of the National Center for Documentation and Research, Dr Hadef bin Ju’an Al Dhaheri, Minister of Justice presented the decoration to Earnest Dyck, the dean of Dyck’s family.

In a special ceremony held on the sidelines of a seminar on Memoirs of the Emirates through Oral Narratives at the National Center for Documentation and Research, a section dedicated to the memory of the late Doctora Latifa was revealed at the Shaikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan Hall which was also officially inaugurated on Sunday.

Present were Ahmed Mohammed Al Hamiari, Secretary General , Ministry of Presidential Affairs and Chair of Executive Committee of the Centre, Dr Abdullah Al Rayyes, Director General of the Centre, Mohammed Khalaf Al Mazrouei, Director General of the Abu Dhabi Authority for Culture and Heritage (DACH), ambassadors and a host of academics.

Shaikh Mansour underscored Shaikh Khalifa’s generous gesture as a realiaation of the well-deserved honoring anyone gets for giving great services to the UAE. “The awarding of the Medal today should serve as a motivation for all historians and researchers who enriched the history of the UAE with their contributions, documents and photos,” he added.

For his part, Earnest expressed gratitude to Shaikh Khalifa for the honour saying it demonstrates UAE’s hospitality, generosity and gratefulness. The medal, he remarked, will remain as one of the established bridges between the East and the West and a symbol of tolerance which prevails in the UAE.

During her many years at Oasis (Waha) Hospital, Gertrude became affectionately known by the local people whom she served, as ‘Doctora Latifa’.

Latifa in Arabic is a word with deep meaning — gentle, merciful and kind. Gertrude enjoyed seventy-five years of life filled with a variety of rich experiences, mostly in a culture foreign to her own, before she passed away in October last year in Canada. —