As Goldie Harvey Sleeps

“Happy posthumous birthday my dear friend & namesake Susan. May God grant your soul peace,” she tweeted. “...its one of the most brutal things I've ever had to face in my adult life. It is well...”

On 4th February, just 10 days before it happened, Goldie Harvey was lamenting the death of her close pal Susan Yusuf, a.k.a Susie Q!

Today, someone else would take on that role. To say her death did not touch me would be a failed attempt at trying to be strong. Right from the time she hit limelight, something about her kept striking me.

While I could not point out what that was, it nonetheless continued.

When she was in the Big Brother House just last year, she received lots of criticism from Nigerians, and indeed Africans, yet I looked at the bright side of her...and they were many. Emotional, absolutely homely, friendly, mild-hearted, loving, loyal, committed, respectful and happy. Indeed, Goldie did epitomize the average African woman, who always wants to make her man comfortable.

Her loud appearance actually seemed an antithesis to her real self.

She was always calm, always ready to hug her fans, always ready to let you know what she was up to. If death were to make a choice based on attitude, Goldie may not be a victim.

“We all criticized her throughout her music career while she was living, insulted and rubbished her while in BBA” someone wrote. “Now she is no more and we have her as our DPz...displaying sadness.” And sad, people are. Because, while she may not have got a lot of fans from her BBA experience, Nigerians still know how to honour people, in death.

Immediately I got wind of her death, while in the arms of her best friend Denrele (as Linda Ikeji revealed), something flashed back to me. After actress Mercy Johnson's wedding in 2011, where she was one of the bridesmaids, I saw her on TV showing people around her room.

She brought out the exact cloth she wore on her friend Mercy's wedding and said, “this is the cloth I wore on Mercy Johnson's wedding. It will be here for the next 20 years. Then I would bring it out and it would be a reminder of how solid her marriage would be even then.”

Sadly, she would never see that period. Rest In Peace Goldie Susan Harvey. You will always be remembered.

Kelechi Udensi