29th April, 2021
Nigerian award-winning author Chimamanda Adichie has penned down a heartfelt eulogy to her late mother, Mrs Grace Adichie.
Adichie. who was speaking for the first time about her mother since her demise eulogised her in a post on her Instagram page.
In a post she titled ‘How does a heartbreak twice?’ She was heartbroken due to the fact that she was just recovering from the news of her father’s death.
“How does a heartbreak twice? To still be immersed in grief, barely breathing again, and then to be plunged callously back into a sorrow you cannot even articulate,” she wrote.
“How can my mother be gone forever, and so soon after my father? My warm, loving, funny, kind, quick-witted, beautiful mother. Unconditional supporter and cheerleader of her children, fun and funny, source of delicious sarcasm, style icon, so sharply observant she never missed a thing.”
Narrating how her mother died, Chimamanda said Mrs Grace Adichie, who was the first-ever female registrar of the University of Nigeria and also a permanent board member at Anambra State Basic Education Board (ASUBEB), had gone to work at ASUBEB in Awka on Friday, Feb 26, but her assistant said she looked a bit tired.
“On Friday she was at work, in her ASUBEB office in Awka. Her lovely assistant Mimi said she seemed a bit tired. Still, back home after work, she walked the half mile to St. Paul’s Church for Stations of the Cross.
“On Saturday, she spent time in Louisa’s shop, outside the gate of our house in Abba, watching the cars and people on the dusty road. On Sunday, her driver drove her to Mass. Sunday evening she was unwell. She was taken to a private hospital in Awka.”
She revealed that two hours after arriving at the teaching hospital where she was transferred, she passed away.
She is survived by her six children: Ijeoma, Uchenna, Chuks, Okechukwu, Chimamanda and Kenechukwu; as well as nine grandchildren.