Adeline Marie Dogbe was born on 15th December,  1979 in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, to Dominic Babli and Thérèse Youe of blessed memory. 

The third of many siblings, Adeline was an ambitious child growing up. She desired success from a really young age and showed promising signs of charisma,  determination and the tenacity to succeed in life.

She started her high school education in Abidjan and continued on to  Lycee Moderne de Man.

Right from the start, Adeline knew what she wanted. She had her life planned out and was willing to take the steps needed to bring that to fruition. 
This is why after her university education at the Université de  Cocody, where she studied French and literature, she moved to the UK in 2003. This was after she met her husband, Ludovic, in September 2001. 

Once here, the world was her oyster. Her belief was that education was the passport to a fulfilling future. So she went on to further her education at the  London Metropolitan university where she studied Employment Studies & Human Resources  Management in 2010. She passed  with distinction.

Now that she was fully qualified,  Adeline was ready to break the glass ceiling and make something of her life. Of course, this came with its own set of challenges. But as a young Christian and prayerful woman who had a dream to be great, she wasn’t deterred. 

After a year of so of being in the UK, she and Ludovic were keen to settle down.  So they got married in Redbridge somewhere around 2004.

Feeling broody and yearning to have her own, Adeline just couldn’t wait to have children. She loved them so much—one of the many reasons she was effective  in children’s church in her local church. 

A year after marriage she had her first child, Caitlin. She welcomed this beautiful bundle of joy into the family and then had Joshua 7 years later. 

Now that the family was complete, she moved on to the next stage of her life—her career. Although she had been studying and doing bit and bobs to help ends meet, she wanted more. Her dream was to work in Human Resources because she loved people and wanted to impact lives.

Young Adeline made her first pit stop in Broomfield hospital in September 2008. Life was moving fast and things were starting to come together nicely for her. As an administrative assistant at the hospital, she showed a lot of zeal and drive early on so she moved on to Dagenham and Barking PCT as an HR administrator. 

At this point, her career had taken off to a really great start. Keen and ready to learn more, she progressed to Queens Hospital, then Princess Alexandra and then finally Mid and South Essex Hospital as  a HR manager and then Senior HR Business Partner.  

It was rare to hear a bad word about Adeline. At work, her manager for 6 years adored her because  she was an excellent and highly skilled Human Resources professional. She trusted  her without reserve and often sought her judgement and opinion sometimes before making very important decisions. Adeline was instrumental in helping her manage, set up and lead an HR change team to support the merger of 3 Hospitals.

Throughout her career, Adeline loved to help people. She loved to see them succeed, be better, move on to the next level and  become what they believed they could be. Her sound mentoring techniques won the heart and souls of juniour staff. She was simply the catalyst that sped the reaction in peoples lives.

Her calm and kind demeanour meant she welcomed everyone with open arms. She was no respecter of persons and always treated people equally. She would always call a spade a spade and was sometimes quite stern and blunt. That was the French in her. This is how she earned the name ‘Frenchie’ from her colleagues. 

Making allowances for people was what she loved to do. And so she always went the extra mile without conditions.

As a wife, she was a beautiful spirit. Ludovic will attest to that as she was  his  best friend, second mother and everything else inbetween. She was supportive, encouraging, pragmatic and full of hope and faith.

She was a great cook, a patient wife and a loving mother. Even while she  was receiving treatment and invasive chemotherapy, she would still cook and clean at home, help out with the kids and sometimes drive the kids to their activities while feeling so frail. 

 She was a strong woman who wasn’t ready to give up.  Her children were fond of her so much as she was funny, strict, patient, jovial and chatty.

Her life was  all about the Word of God and she demonstrated this throughout her short life. She made everyone around her believe anything was possible if you believed in the Holy Spirit, even on her sick bed. 

In church, she was no different. She worked with the children’s church and the finance team where she was extremely effective and faithful. While she was receiving treatment, she still attended church sometimes and continued with her duties whenever she could. That was a woman of faith! 

Her foundation was the Lord which is why she made Matthew 7:24-27 her favourite words from the lord. She believed it through and through until death took her away from us.

Adeline, we’ll miss you but we’re content because you lived a life that inspired many and changed lives.


Rest in peace