Damalie and I go back about 20 years. Damalie and her sisters attended the same High School as my sisters, so our friendship started out on familiar ground. We worked for the same organization for over 13 years and served together on the UNAA-Atlanta chapter. Over the 20 years our friendship blossomed, and we became more like sisters. We never went a week without seeing each other until Covid-19 hit but we still spoke almost daily. She has been a vital part of my life and been there for me during the great and not so great times.
Damalie and I shared a love for travel, socializing and meeting new people and we did a lot of that together. Any time other friends backed out of doing something Damalie was always in agreeance. Damalie loved to dance so we shared many fun evenings with girlfriends and the Ugandan Atlanta community. She was known for her great sense of humor and always had us laughing uncontrollably with funny stories/jokes.
Damalie was extremely generous and thoughtful. She reached out in situations where most would not think to. She always visited bearing a gift in hand, the last for me being a bag of oranges she dropped off when I was not feeling well. Whenever family visited, she bought them gifts to take back to Uganda. She always checked in on community members to see how they were doing, visited with the sick and those that had lost loved ones.
On her visits to Uganda Damalie always took time to reach out to my family and in turn introduced me to many of her family members. It’s things like this that made me really appreciate and treasure our friendship. When I had my own family, Damalie became a part of it too. Tamale, Zach and Zara will miss and love her just as much. She had a strong work ethic which was recognized by all organizations she served in.
She was deeply spiritual and loved the Lord and her church. We were all aware about how much Damalie loved her family, by the way she spoke about them, and by the special bond she shared with her niece Chloe. She loved hard and was deeply loved in return by everyone around her.
This loss has hit our community hard and we can only imagine how much more difficult it is for her family. We pray the Lord comfort and keep Lwanga family. Damalie spoke about one day retiring to Uganda to the home she built. So, it is only fitting that she is laid to rest in her beloved Uganda.
Rest well my friend. We love you and will miss you so much.
Birungi Katongole-Tamale
Atlanta GA
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