Mary Gardner

From the Guardian

Mary Gardner who was killed in the Jerusalem bombing on Wednesday. She was studying Hebrew there for six months. Photograph: Wycliffe Bible TranslatorsMary Gardner, the British woman killed in the Jerusalem bus bombing, was an evangelical Christian who had been living in Togo, west Africa, translating the New Testament into the local Ifé language.

She was on a six-month course in Jerusalem studying ancient and modern Hebrew at the Hebrew University prior to returning to Togo to begin work on a translation of the Old Testament.

The 55-year-old had been staying in a dormitory in Yad Hasmona village, about six miles from Jerusalem, but had gone into the city on Wednesday to meet her oldest friend. She was fatally injured. Thirty others were wounded when a device weighing up to 2kg exploded near the busy central bus station.

The eldest of five children, Gardner was born in Nairobi, Kenya, but moved to Aberdeenshire when she was 15. Her parents Jean, 81 and Tony, 82, who live there, said they were “devastated by the sudden loss of our daughter in this tragic and unexpected way”.

In a statement they said: “Mary was a very special person and we thought the world of her. She was devoted to her work and was well liked wherever she went. We are proud of her and all that she has achieved in her life and feel truly blessed to have had her in our lives.”

She had been working for Wycliffe Bible Translators in Togo, living among the Ifé people for the past 20 years, learning the language, translating the bible, and teaching literacy and maths.

Eddie Arthur, executive director of Wycliffe, said: “I cannot tell you how highly regarded she was. She was an extremely gutsy person, highly intelligent, with huge drive and the ability to stick with the project for 20 years in far from comfortable conditions. It must have been incredibly isolating at times. But she was completely dedicated to her work, and to the Ifé people.”

Of whom the world was not worthy…