TO A DEAR FRIEND

LATE CHIOMA CHUKA.
LATE CHIOMA CHUKA.

Imagine receiving a chat beep on your phone and it turned out to be a friend the news of whose demise you have just received through another friend via text message. I logged on to the chat room, stayed for almost three minutes before I suddenly realized I have been exchanging pleasantries with my dead friend Chioma Chuka.

It is a fact of life that death is a necessary end; one that would come when it would come. But according to the great Odyssey of the ancient Greek empire, some deaths are not actually necessary ends, but where life ought to have begun.

Chioma Chuka, once with The Champion newspapers, Lagos, lost her breath to the cold hands of death at the very apogee of her life. She was one of the few friends I have that spelt my name with a smile. That we were very close probably explained why she came on the chat room for one last time to talk to me.

Three weeks after we received a text message from Okey Nwankwo (a journalist friend now working with a Corporate Organisation) that Chioma Chuka was dead, it still sounds like a circus tale to me. The news of her dead was still sounding incredulous to me until I got another text message a few days ago announcing her burial. When I received the news of her burial, I became confused as regards to the person that I chatted with online last week Tuesday. Could that be her spirit? I eventually understood that it couldn’t have been Chioma, probably one of her friends who had access to her e_mail box.

Chioma, this month makes it exactly eight months we met in Benin at the Central Bank of Nigeria-organized conference for financial journalists. I never knew that last year will be the last time I will set my eyes on you. You promised then to visit Lagos so that we could have time to interact and I was still waiting for the August visit when the first massage came in. The first question I asked was: ‘Was it an accident?, before I was told that it was a brief illness that took you away from us.

Although you have left this world your death stands as a lesson to all your friends and colleagues whom you left behind. You lost your mum at a tender age but you grew up and stood in the gap as a mother to your younger ones. At your sister, Ogechukwu,'s wedding you performed a mother’s role that made it difficult for people to notice that your mother was not there.

Your early life struggles as a child after the death of your mother made you to develop the slogan “it is well”, no matter the circumstances you found yourself. Despite the challenges you faced in life you never one day turned your back on any one that came your way needing care, love, and financial support; you were that special.

You were generous to the extent that you could spend your last kobo just to ensure that people around you were comfortable.

Oh! Chioma, Chioma, although you are dead, the memory of the good things you did when you were with us will remain fresh all through my life. Your ever ready pieces of advice, kindness and easy approach to life totally changed my lifestyle and perception about life. I will forever be indebted to you, even in death, for your genuine friendship.

Chioma was born about 35 years ago to the family of the late Mr. and Mrs. Ubanus Chuka in Umuagu Village Nnobi in Idemili South Local Government Area of Anambra State, Nigeria.

She had her secondary education at the St. Monica’s College Ogbunike and graduated from the Department of Economics, Ambrose Alli University Ekpoma. She had earlier obtained a National Diploma in Accounting from the University of Benin, Benin City.

Even as we are distressed by your sudden passage, we are encouraged that you are going to be with your creator, free from all the hassles and pitfalls of this unpredictable and callous world.

Farewell to you Chioma, my dear friend. All your Friends are missing You, already. “Jee nke oma, nwanne oma!”

Ifeakandu is a Lagos based financial journalist with the Leadership Newspaper.



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