'Larger than life': Tributes flow for Parramatta woman who died from COVID-19
Jamilie Joseph was a fixture in her western Sydney community for 70 years – both as a family member and organiser – whose kitchen was regularly filled with other people, where she cooked food such as stuffed grape leaves and biscuits.
The 80-year-old is being remembered after passing away from COVID-19.
Jamilie Joseph moved to Parramatta from Lebanon as a young child.Credit:Facebook
"Had she not been a loving wife and mother she would have been a mayor," wrote filmmaker Fadia Abboud in a tribute post on Facebook, which attracted dozens of responses.
"She was a smart woman who knew how to organise things. Aunty Jamilie was full of life and love and will be greatly missed by many," Ms Abboud wrote on Thursday.
"She was very well known and respected in our community and you could always find her at Our Lady of Lebanon."
Jamilie and Tony Joseph on their wedding day.Credit:Widows of Parramatta
Mrs Joseph became infected from the Our Lady of Lebanon Co-Cathedral cluster and passed away late Wednesday evening.
She was the first reported death related to COVID-19 in NSW in 12 days.
"She had a larger than life personality,” wrote one commenter, while another said, "our world is a lesser place without her".
Married at 16, Mrs Joseph lost her husband Tony a few years ago - and became the focus of a web-series discussing life as a widow.
Ms Abboud created Widows of Parramatta in 2018 – where three Lebanese-Australian who had all recently lost their husbands discussed life, the past, death, and other issues.
Mrs Joseph was featured, along with Ms Abboud's mother, Layla Kisrwani, and a third woman, Jenny Khawaji. All three lost their husbands in the mid-2010s.
The clips provide a glimpse into life in Australia, and the struggles that migrants often face when arriving in new communities.
Mrs Joseph recounted having to hide behind a wall to eat Lebanese food at primary school, and how they re-named kibbeh (a Middle Eastern dish made with minced meat and bulgur shaped into patties) to "Japanese bombs" because a bomb squad was called to Campsie railway station when a bag of the ground beef balls fell on the ground and sent station staff into a panic.
On the topic of organ donation, for which the web video series was made, Mrs Joseph said she would be grateful for any part of her husband to help others.
"If someone doesn't have an eye, and my husband had donated his eye … and I could see it was his eye, I would hug and kiss that person," she said.
Mrs Joseph is one of nine COVID-19 patients who died in Australia in the latest 24-hour reporting period, taking the national toll to 361.