Geraldine Moti who aided many in Africa dies at 69

Nurse who aided many in Africa dies at 69
Geraldine Moti went from being a small-town nurse to becoming a world-traveling humanitarian.
Herón Márquez Estrada,
Star Tribune
When Geraldine Moti graduated from high school in the Brown County town of Springfield in 1954, relatives say she couldn't wait to see the world.
"She wanted to get out of the small-town life," said Kulani Moti, her daughter. "She graduated in June and by July she was in nursing school."
Moti died on Sept. 11 at age 69; but she had seen much of the world during a 40-year nursing career that took her from the wilds of Alaska to the streets of Afghanistan.
Moti, who spent most of her career at North Memorial Medical Center in Robbinsdale as a nurse anesthetist, also did extensive work in Ethiopia, where she and her husband started an orphanage and also provided medical help to residents of the African nation.
"She was passionate about her work," said Carolyn Olson, a nursing colleague at North Memorial who trained under Moti. "She was a very dynamic person. When she was committed to something she was really committed."
Moti, of Brooklyn Park, retired in 1998 from North Memorial, but kept busy, especially helping Oromo refugees from Ethiopia.
She and her husband, Tasissa, who is from Ethiopia, housed dozens of refugees in their home over the years and also helped thousands in Ethiopia through the Oromo Relief Medical Educational Development Association (ORMEDA), which they started in their home in the mid-1990s.
"She cared about people no matter what color, religion or ethnicity they were," said Tasissa Moti, who met his wife in Ethiopia when she traveled there in the mid-1960s to train doctors and nurses. The couple married in 1970. "She dedicated herself to helping others."
Kulani Moti said that while her mother was tireless in her humanitarian efforts, she also greatly enjoyed music and singing, especially while growing up in Springfield.
As a teenager she sang in church choirs. and was asked to sing at weddings and at funerals. As an adult she sang at the weddings of her brothers and sisters.
Kulani Moti said that in the mid-1960s, when Geraldine Moti was training medical professionals in Kabul, Afghanistan, she missed the wedding of her younger brother Doug.
"She sent a tape recording of her singing and that was played at the wedding," her daughter said.
A private service was held for Geraldine Moti on Friday at Calvary Lutheran Church in Golden Valley, where she was a longtime member.
Besides her husband and daughter, she is survived her brothers Doug and Red Arndt, and her sisters Sandie Mielke and Paulette Levasseur.
Herón Márquez Estrada • hme@startribune.com