Person:Mentaha Boulous (1)

Name variants Menta (on death record) Boulos is a more common name well attested among the Maronite Christians in Lebanon

Religion

Menta was a Maronite Christian (Jezzine is a Maronite Christian enclave, in the mountains to the south of Beirut), and was a very devout person. At her home in Aboukir, along the coast from Alexandria, she was witnessed by her grandson John and granddaughter Patsy, during their extended stay with her, to practice a ritual cleansing of the house every Saturday morning (‘banishing the evil spirits’). She did this by mixing incense with dried orange peel, which she lit and went through the house, singing incantations (in Aramaic from the Maronite liturgy) as she waved the incense in all corners of the building.

When she was very ill in Aboukir, she would still get up early to iron John’s shirt and trousers in time for him to get to the church to serve mass (altar server) for Father Stanko (Stanislaus Perovic from Croatia).

Brothers and sisters

At least one brother, and a sister, who was a Maronite nun.

Jezzine, Lebanon to Alexandria, Egypt

One brother is known to have been killed in the civil strife following the break-up of the Ottoman Empire, after its defeat along with Germany in WW1...Menta was sent as a 17 year old, to live with her uncle in Alexandria, which was under British rule. Her uncle ran a bus company there, but sadly died suddenly not long after Menta’s arrival, leaving her to make her own way through life. But she did end up with other extended family nearby...’Tante Marie’ in Alexandria was her cousin.

According to Mary Judkins (nee Jayes), as a young woman Menta was the housekeeper for a wealthy Jewish family (linked to the Alexandria stock exchange), and this is where John Lewis Jayes first set eyes on her, when he was invited back to the family’s house as a guest.

Although she spent all of her adult life in Egypt, she is buried in Thorne yorkshire following a stretchered flight and short period in a Doncaster hospital.

Children

Mary Violet 1923-2014, Ernest F 1923, Dorothy, Jackie, Lilian, Leslie Claud, Irene. (One additional baby girl - Edith - was born, but died of heatstroke in Mary’s arms, when Mary was 11 years old, and is buried in Aboukir).

Married

John Lewis Jayes, Alexandria, Egypt, 1921

John Jayes elected to be demobbed locally in Alexandria at the end of WW1 (Alexandria had been the HQ & base for the Gallipoli campaign), and had gained employment initially as a civilian accounts clerk with the military.

He subsequently met and married Menta Boulos, and they had eight children (see above) of whom Mary was the eldest, and quickly became her mother’s helper with the others.

Illness and death

When Mary first returned to Egypt in 1954 to see her mother and family after a long absence (nearly 14 years), she noticed when first embracing her mother in Port Said (she met her on the quayside) that she looked pale and drawn..both Patsy and John witnessed this first exchange. Menta had said nothing to her children about not feeling well, and subsequently turned out to be suffering from advanced cancer of the uterus.

She was given radium treatment at the Egyptian Hospital in Alexandria, which was not successful, and then transferred to the Jewish Hospital in Alexandria, which at that time had a much better reputation (Jews and Egyptians lived happily together in those days).

On returning to England, Mary raised the money through well-off friends, to fund Menta’s flight to England. She came on a stretcher, accompanied by her son Leslie and was admitted to the hospital in Balby Doncaster. This was her only ever visit to England. Sadly she lasted only a short while after, and is buried in Thorne cemetery, a place she had never been to in her life!

She had always harboured the desire to revisit her beloved Jezzine!

Menta Jayes was a warm caring mother and grandmother. She spoke English with a very strong accent. Her first language was Lebanese arabic, but she was fluent in Egyptian arabic, French, and some Italian.

1. ↑ England & Wales deaths 1837-2007
   2B, 541, 1955.
2. ↑ John and Menta's grave in Thorne cemetary