Titilayo Bosede Ajayi
Lovingly known as “Matron Tito”
5 September 1940 — 26 July 2019 · aged 78
Matron of UCH Ibadan who trained a generation of nurses and sang at every bedside
Ibadan, Nigeria Born in Iseyin, Oyo State Resting at Family burial ground, OgbomosoAbout Titilayo
Matron Titilayo Ajayi could silence a ward of forty patients with a single raised eyebrow and then wake them gently at dawn with a hymn. Both skills served her well in thirty-six years at the University College Hospital in Ibadan.
She was born in Iseyin in 1940, the daughter of a weaver and a petty trader, and her mother sold yam flour to pay for her secondary school fees. Titilayo entered the School of Nursing at UCH in 1958, qualified in 1961, and went on to midwifery training at the Wesley Guild Hospital in Ilesa. She returned to Ibadan as a staff nurse, rose to Nursing Sister, and became a Matron in 1979, one of very few women in the hospital's senior management.
Her ward rounds were legendary. She inspected fingernails, bed corners and bedside lockers, and she remembered the names of patients' children. Student nurses who had once dreaded her now run wards in Ibadan, Manchester and Toronto, and several still carry the small leather notebook she gave each graduating class, with a single line inside the cover: 'Care first. Everything else second.'
She married Olufemi Ajayi in 1964, and the household she built with him ran on love, good food and noisy debate. She was an Anglican who worshipped at St. James' Cathedral in Oke-Bola, and teased her Baptist husband about the length of his sermons. She loved gele in every colour, jollof rice at Christmas, and the Sunday afternoon naps that nobody was allowed to interrupt.
Matron Ajayi died after a short illness in July 2019. She leaves her husband, three children, and nine grandchildren.
“Care first. Everything else second.”
- Faith
- Christian
- Place of birth
- Iseyin, Oyo State
- Resting place
- Family burial ground, Ogbomoso
- Passed away
- 26 July 2019, Ibadan
Thanksgiving Service
Friday, 9 August 2019 at 09:00 UTC
Add to calendarLife journey
Registered Nurse Diploma
School of Nursing, University College Hospital1958 – 1961 · Ibadan
Top of her class in practical examinations.
Midwifery Certificate
Wesley Guild Hospital1961 – 1962 · Ilesa
Delivered her first baby in the first week of the course.
Staff Nurse, Nursing Sister, Matron
University College Hospital1962 – 1998 · Ibadan
Matron from 1979; trained several generations of nurses.
Married Olufemi Ajayi
1964 · Ibadan
A marriage of fifty-five years.
Women's Fellowship Leader
St. James' Cathedral, Oke-Bola1990 – 2015 · Ibadan
Organised annual free health checks for the parish.
Nursing Excellence Award
Nigerian Association of Nurses and Midwives1996 · Ibadan
For distinguished service to hospital nursing.
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Family & connections
Also remembered on Evermore
Titilayo is survived by
- Prof. Olufemi Ajayi· Spouse
- Dr. Folake Ajayi-Williams· Daughter
- Tunde Ajayi· Son
- Bimpe Ajayi-Cole· Daughter
- 9 grandchildren· Grandchildren
Tributes & memories
5 people have shared a memory of Titilayo.
Knew Titilayo? Share a memory with the family and everyone who loved them.
Sign in to write a tribute- TA
Son
Mummy never sat through a Sunday lunch without checking somebody's pulse under the table. She said she was only holding hands. She held ours, and everyone else's, for fifty-five years. We love you, Matron.
- DE
Colleague at UCH
The night a power cut hit the maternity ward in 1991, she walked in with a hurricane lamp and a torch in each pocket and calmly delivered three babies before sunrise. She never mentioned it, and never needed to.
- MA
Women's Fellowship, St. James' Cathedral
She led our health-check Saturdays for twenty-five years. People came for the blood pressure test and stayed for the way she asked about their families. Heaven's wards are better organised now, I am sure.
- BO
Neighbour and family friend in Bodija
Mama Tito knew every child on our street by name, shoe size and temper. When my son had malaria at midnight, she was at our door in her wrapper with a thermometer before I finished dialling her number.
- DN
Former student nurse, now a consultant in Manchester
Matron Ajayi once sent me back to remake a bed four times. On the fifth I understood that a bed was a promise to the person lying in it. I have never made one since without hearing her voice. I would not be a nurse without her.
