Members of the Association, and her many friends around the world, will be greatly saddened to learn of the death of our dear friend Professor Madonna Megrelishvili, until recently Chair of our sister organisation the Kutaisi Newport International Association.
Madonna was central to the Twinning of Newport and Kutaisi and chaired the KNIA from its foundation in 1989 until she retired due to failing health last year.
She was highly respected and much loved in Newport and in her home city and was awarded an Honorary Citizenship for her outstanding contribution to Kutaisi’s civic life for over fifty years. The award also recognised her superlative contribution to the teaching of English Language and Literature at Kutaisi’s Akaki Tsereteli State University.
We in the NKTA conferred an Honorary Membership on Madonna in 2011 in gratitude for her immeasurable contribution to the Twinning.
This special edition of the KNIA Newsletter enables us to pay tribute to Madonna. We recognise that with her death the Twinning has reached the end of an era. However the members of both Newport and Kutaisi Twinning Associations, inspired by the legacy left to us by Madonna, are committed to continuing and strengthening this unique friendship between two proud cities situated at opposite ends of the European continent.
Obituaries
To the Mayor of the City of Kutaisi
Councillor Davit Eremeishvili
As Mayor of Newport, Kutaisi’s twin City, I wish offer my sincere condolences to you, the Mayor of Kutaisi, the people of your City and the members of the Kutaisi Newport International Association on the sad death of our dear friend Professor Madonna Megrelishvili, one of the founders of the Twinning of Newport and Kutaisi and Chair of the KNIA from its formation in 1989 until her recent retirement.
Professor Megrelishvili was a leading member of the Kutaisi Civic Group invited to Newport over thirty years ago to sign the Twinning Agreement and she has visited our City many times since then, including the memorable visit she made at the Council’s invitation in 2000 to celebrate with us the granting of City status.
We know how important the Twinning was to Madonna. Due in large part to her determination to ensure the link had a serious purpose, many Newport and Kutaisi people with a wide range of interests and expertise made study visits to each other’s Cities. As a result over one thousand Newport residents have visited Kutaisi and Madonna gave a personal welcome to every single one of them. All remember her kindness and the warm feelings she had for Newport, Wales and the UK.
We share your deep sense of loss. However I can assure you that Newport City Council places great value on the Twinning and is confident the bonds of friendship between our Cities, to which Professor Megrelishvili devoted much of her life, will develop far into the future.
Kindest regards,
The Right Worshipful the Mayor of the City of Newport,
Councillor David Williams –
To the Mayor of the City of Kutaisi
Councillor Davit Eremeishvili
As Mayor of Newport, Kutaisi’s twin City, I wish offer my sincere condolences to you, the Mayor of Kutaisi, the people of your City and the members of the Kutaisi Newport International Association on the sad death of our dear friend Professor Madonna Megrelishvili, one of the founders of the Twinning of Newport and Kutaisi and Chair of the KNIA from its formation in 1989 until her recent retirement.
Professor Megrelishvili was a leading member of the Kutaisi Civic Group invited to Newport over thirty years ago to sign the Twinning Agreement and she has visited our City many times since then, including the memorable visit she made at the Council’s invitation in 2000 to celebrate with us the granting of City status.
We know how important the Twinning was to Madonna. Due in large part to her determination to ensure the link had a serious purpose, many Newport and Kutaisi people with a wide range of interests and expertise made study visits to each other’s Cities. As a result over one thousand Newport residents have visited Kutaisi and Madonna gave a personal welcome to every single one of them. All remember her kindness and the warm feelings she had for Newport, Wales and the UK.
We share your deep sense of loss. However I can assure you that Newport City Council places great value on the Twinning and is confident the bonds of friendship between our Cities, to which Professor Megrelishvili devoted much of her life, will develop far into the future.
Kindest regards,
The Right Worshipful the Mayor of the City of Newport,
Councillor David Williams
7th July 2021
Professor Madonna Megrishvilli, a tenacious superwoman of power, courage and huge resource, will remain in our hearts and minds forever. Her ability to develop and sustain the strongest cultural and professional collaborative projects, both within the English Philology Department and as Chair of KNIA, will always be remembered. The highest of standards were expected from both her staff and students as she worked tirelessly to ensure that her department was the very best with an international reputation. Professor Madonna Megrishvilli drove vigorously from behind but also led from the front, a positive role model for those she nurtured and developed.
For the past thirty years, she has initiated and supported many diverse cross cultural collaborative projects in partnership with NKTA. Most currently, the Bridge project in Kutaisi, which is developing and supporting inclusive education, continues to expand in spite of Covid challenges and restrictions.
On a personal note, Madonna will always be the matriarch of my Georgian family, a family which I hold very dear. She has enriched my life through the many opportunities and experiences she has created and facilitated for me. Thirty years ago, a door was opened into a wonderful secret garden, Kutaisi in the Republic of Georgia, and for this I cannot thank her enough.
Caroline McLachlan
NKTA Chair
NKTA Member for over thirty years
A Tribute from Councillor Jane Mudd – Leader of Newport City Council
I am saddened to hear of the death of Professor Madonna Mehgrelishvili, one of the driving forces behind the twinning of Newport and Kutaisi in 1989 and for over 30 years since then. She was highly respected in both cities and will be greatly missed by many people including the hundreds of Newport residents who have visited Kutaisi or welcomed our friends from Georgia into their homes. On behalf of the City Council I would like to extend our sympathy to Professor Megrelishvili’s friends and family.
Dear Professor Megrelishvili,
The UK All Party parliamentary Group for Georgia has asked me to contact you to thank you for your long and effective service in moulding the close and lasting relationship that exists between Kutaisi and Newport.
I understand that this link was originally formed in 1989 and that you ensured that it survived during the 1990s when communication became very difficult.
Accordingly, we recognise your excellent service in furthering UK/Georgia friendship and we wish you all good health.
With warm regards,
Jonathan Djanogly MP
The letter is signed by Jonathan Djangoly MP, the Chairman of the All Party
Parliamentary Group on Georgia. Jessica Morden MP for Newport East is Secretary of the Group. It is dated the day of Madonna’s death.
I first went to Kutaisi as part of a NKTA group visit in 2000. We stayed in the homes of KNIA members and everyone we met was so friendly. Madonna was the driving force but all our hosts followed her lead. For long after my first visit I corresponded with the people I had met and stayed with and I still treasure the letters I received. They include a beautiful Christmas card from Madonna with a lovely personal message inside. It is sad she is no longer with us but her influence on the Twinning was so strong that it will be part of it for ever.
Vera Brown
NKTA Secretary 1997 – 2017
It is noticeable how many of us are upset by Madonna’s passing. She has been a big part of my life since I first met her in 2004. As Chair of the Association I was privileged to work closely with Madonna. We achieved much together and became close friends.I miss her greatly and will never forget her.
Sonia Fisher NKTA Chair 2009 – 2019
Madonna’s passing is like the loss of a much-loved sister. She has been a central part of my life for so many years.
As Mayor of Newport I was a member of the delegation that went to Kutaisi in 1989 for exploratory talks about a possible twinning and I saw then how highly respected Madonna was in Kutaisi. Our friendship really began later when Madonna came to Newport for the signing of the Twinning Agreement and we began to plan how to make the Twinning a significant contribution to the life of our two cities.
Perhaps fortunately, we didn’t realise the difficulties we would face in order to maintain the link in those early pioneering days. Telephone and postal links were virtually non-existent and this was long before the introduction of emails. But through perseverance and our joint determination to form bonds between our cities we became ever-closer friends and the friendship has lasted for over thirty years. Early visits to Kutaisi by individuals eventually grew into larger group visits and Madonna was always there to welcome each member of the group with her wonderful smile. Since 1990 many Newport individuals and delegations have visited Kutaisi. They include civic leaders & council officers, university, college & school teachers, administrators & students, police, fire & rescue personnel, doctors & health administrative staff, social workers, artists & musicians, sportspeople, youth groups and many others. In turn, many Kutaisi citizens have visited Newport. All made the long journey, now eased by direct flights, in order to gain an understanding of each other’s city and in some cases provide guidance and practical assistance.
None of this would have happened without Madonna. We are indeed in her debt. For me, though, it is the personal friendship that I will treasure most.
Dame Rosemary Butler DBE
NKTA Chair 1990 – 2000
A Kutaisi delegation lead by the Madonna came to Newport when I was Mayor and we had a great time together.
Former Mayor, Councillor Bill Langsford
I had the pleasure of meeting Madonna on several occasions and she was integral to the Twinning. I am sorry to hear of her passing.
Joanne Parcell NCC Destination & Development Officer
Everyone at GOL Cymru is sad to hear the news. On the several occasions when we visited Kutaisi we were always welcomed by Madonna and the University English Department. In 2017 she chided me for not having told her my wife Helen was coming. Madonna took a ring from her finger and gave it to Helen. A lovely woman. She will be missed.
Tim Hartley GOL Cymru, Wales Football Team’s Official Supporter’s Club
I am so sorry. I remember Madonna’s great warmth and enthusiasm when I first arrives in Kutaisi back in the 1980s. She was the one who brought the city alive for me and I drew on my meetings with Madonna when I wrote about Kutaisi in `Georgia in the Mountains of Poetry`. I’ve felt her presence lingering in its streets on every visit since. Let us continue what she so richly started. My best wishes to her family, friends and colleagues.
Peter Nasmyth Author, photographer and Georgian resident for over 30 years
Rosemary and I first met Madonna in 1989. Rosemary was Mayor of Newport at the time and Madonna was a member of the first Kutaisi civic delegation to visit the city. We took a liking to her immediately. Although not the official leader of the group, she seemed to be in charge and we even suspected her of being KGB. We liked Madonna’s sense of purpose, her inquisitiveness, her knowledge of the UK, her effortless mastery of English and, above all, her mischievous sense of humour.
As she and Rosemary discussed how they would build a truly purposeful partnership between our two very different cities they found that they enjoyed each others company and our friendship, like the Twinning itself, continued to grow. It was strengthened by the difficulties we faced during the 1990s when direct contact between the two cities was non-existent with no telephone or postal links. Communication was only possible by an arduous air journey which entailed a stop-over of one or two nights in Moscow while waiting for a flight to Kutaisi. Madonna would meet us there. She had studied in Moscow and knew it well. She took us to the Bolshoi, the Moscow State Circus and the homes of her Georgian friends. One day, to our amazement, we even found ourselves eating in the staff restaurant of the Pushkin Art Gallery.
It was inevitable that we would become close friends. Over the next thirty years Madonna was one of the people we first turned to when we had family or other pressing news and Rosemary and I feel honoured to suggest that Madonna was able to share some of her hopes and concerns with us.
We will miss Madonna greatly.
Derek Butler NKTA Secretary Newsletter Editor www.nkta.org
It is with a heavy heart that I have learnt of the death of our friend and partner Professor Madonna Megrelishvili. She possessed immense academic knowledge and teaching skills that awed and inspired her students in equal measures and always put the interests of young people at the heart if her work. She was also a skilled diplomat who helped navigate Georgia from a Soviet backwater into a proud independent nation. Georgia, Kutaisi and Newport have lost a teacher, a leader and an irreplaceable friend.
Peter Landers Organiser of the Newport Kutaisi Youth Exchange Project
No words can express the deep sorrow I feel today. I was very fortunate to have known Madonna and I will remember her always.
Dr. Dimitri Kopaliani The first student from Kutaisi to undertake post-graduate studies at the University of Wales, Newport.
We had heard many accounts of Madonna’s importance both for the Twinning and for her role in Kutaisi and Georgia and in May 2007 we met her ourselves when we were guests of the KNIA. The visit from first to last was stamped with Madonna’s warm hospitality. We were treated like valued members of a large and generous family. She took great pleasure in our visit as she did in all the visitors to Kutaisi over the decades..
Despite the sad fact that she will no longer welcome visitors from Newport, her legacy will live on in the thriving association which she led from the very beginning. It was an honour to know her.
Sylvia & Colin Mason
