Mrs. Thelma Elizabeth (Chalmers) Elsawi, 77, of New Bern, North Carolina (formerly of Lee County, NC) entered into eternal rest on Friday, June 7, 2025, in New Bern, North Carolina.

Thelma Elizabeth Chalmers, born June 14th, 1947, to the late Thomas R Chalmers and the late Anne Lee Hailey Chalmers. Thelma was the youngest of seven children. She attended Mount  Muriah missionary Baptist church in Camerson, North Carolina as a child where she accepted Christ and was baptized.

Thelma attended Johnsonville High School in North Carolina and graduated in the class of 1965. She furthered her education by attending Fayetteville State University in Fayetteville, North  Carolina. Shortly after her college journey Thelma settled in Newark, a big city in New Jersey, where she worked for the mayor's office for over 10 years and worked at the BMW dealership for  some time.

She then began working with the state of New Jersey to become a foster parent to provide for kids in need of a home. She moved into a little neighborhood named New Hope Village where she  raised her four children and fifteen grandchildren and was also a grandmother figure to the whole neighborhood for over 30 years. She became a member of New Hope Baptist Church where she  sang in the 11AM mass choir. One of her favorite songs to sing was "Lord You've Been Good to Me".

Thelma was very active in the church; she would do fish fry's and host luncheons to help raise money for the church. She would talk to the youth in the neighborhood and try to get them to join  the church. Anything she could do to help the church and spread God's word she would do it.

There was nothing Thelma loved more than God and church. She kept all her grandchildren in Sunday school and the 11 AM service every Sunday faithfully. She also loved to shop, dress, cook  and most of all spend time with her family. She would throw massive cookouts for the whole neighborhood in the summertime, she would give bus rides to the water park in the summertime for the whole neighborhood and she would take all her grandchildren to Atlantic City every summer for a few days.

Thelma was big on family. Every holiday her house would be the meet up spot. She would have a house full of grandchildren, family and friends. Thelma was also very well known for her way  with words; she would ask God to bless you and set out straight (cuss you out) in the same sentence. The family called her the original Madea. She was loved by anyone who came across her  path in life. She was caring, loving, nurturing, and a tough cookie all at the same time. Truly one of a kind.

Thelma was preceded in death by her parents Annie Lee Hailey-Chalmers and Thomas R. Chalmers. Her late brothers and sisters, Melvin, Marvin, Inez, Estall, Ervin and Max, and her eldest  daughter Kimberly Chalmers.

Thelma is survived by her three children Dorrell Chalmers, Kerstyn Harris, and Kandyce Harris, four adopted children Kizzy, Kelly, Melody and Kimberly, her step son Kenan, sixteen  grandchildren, sixteen great grandchildren, and a host of nieces, nephews, and dear friends.

Please keep the family and friends of Mrs. Thelma Elizabeth (Chalmers) Elsawi in your thoughts and prayers.

Arrangements are entrusted to McLeod Funeral Home of Sanford, North Carolina.