Badia Musa Elias

Badia Musa Elias, age 89, passed away peacefully surrounded by her family on January 8, 2015. Born in Ramallah, Palestine on February 13, 1925, she was a beloved wife, mother, grandmother and great grandmother. Badia immigrated to the USA in 1965 with her husband, Mikhail Saliba Elias, where she raised a family of three boys and three girls in Jacksonville, Florida. She was a lifetime member of the Ramallah American Club of Jacksonville. Her loving spirit kept such a large family so close together. She was a remarkable woman whose selfless devotion to her family was only surpassed by her faith in God.

She is preceded in death by her beloved husband, Mikhail Saliba Elias; her parents, Musa and Zarifeh Khalil; her brother Pvt. Isa Musa Khalil; and her sisters, Mariam Salem Elias, Namieh Essa Totah, Nameh Musa Khalil, and Rose Fareed Sackllah. She is survived by her sons, George (Lucy), Alfred (Nabila), Mazen Elias; daughters, Seham (Frank) Rukab, Aileen (late Bader) Farhat, Shereen (Sandy) Bateh; brother Khalil (Mary) Musa Khalil; thirteen grandchildren; fifteen great-grandchildren; and many nieces and nephews.

The family will receive friends on Sunday, January 11, 2015, from six o’clock until seven o’clock in the evening at St. George Orthodox Church, 6300 Bowden Road, Jacksonville, FL. The Trisagion service will begin at seven o’clock in the evening. Funeral services will be held at ten o’clock in the morning on Monday, January 12, 2015 at St. George Orthodox Church with The Very Rev. Archpriest Kamal Al-Rahil, officiating. Interment will follow in Oaklawn Cemetery.

HARDAGE-GIDDENS, THE OAKLAWN CHAPEL, 4801 San Jose Boulevard is serving the family.