Mama, we don’t know where to begin. How do we tell the world of your indelible presence in our lives? From the time we can remember you have always been around. Explaining to people our relationship with you has been a little difficult- how can we tell our friends and well-wishers that you were our first cousin? Yes our mothers are sisters, so that was our relationship by the whiteman’s definition. How we laugh and weep at the same time because the word “cousin” does not even begin to tell what you represented to us. You quickly went beyond being a cousin to become a sister, aunt, mother and grandmother to our kids. Yes our relationship was special and different. In your fluent Kenyang you will say “echi kequiri”.
Your close relationship to our parents spilled over to your relationship with us and by God’s plan we lived in the same town, Buea for a whole decade and this brought the two homes even closer. So where do we begin? Do we begin from when our parents went to England when you took our sister Bechem as one of your daughters but still took care of the rest of us even in our various houses? Do we remember all the many gifts you brought after each England trip and your eternal presence as our “educated aunt” to celebrate our every success? Do we recall our parent’s tragic deaths and the role you played at the funerals? Should we begin from all the times you have called us to give your ideas even in matters that concerned our father’s family or your financial and organizational support when we had deaths on our father’s side of the family, or do we talk of the times you have had to come play the role of mother in organizing our marriages or your presence as we delivered babies? Do we concentrate on your active presence in our children’s’ lives even after they are born? The special outfits and gifts? And for those of us who live out of the country, your continuous parcels of eru, egusi, crayfish etc for close to two decades now including an eternal supply of African wear? Your generosity is the stuff of which legends are made. Our Uncle, Mr. Enow Tanjong often told us that you were the only relative who bought him a shirt at the time everyone thought he had too much. We know that only too well. In fact Mama trying to identify where and when your footprints have been around us is an exercise in futility. We can even get the number right but we will never be able to quantify the thoughtfulness and warm emotions that went into every action you carried out.
We thank God that during your life time we had many occasions to express our love to you. Mama, we are doing our best to join the other family members to give you a befitting burial. You were indeed one of a kind, a veritable, “Nnem Ngoreh” . We know we will miss you. We know after your death, it will be a completely new era but we thank God that he gave you to us. Thank you and thank you again for everything.
The Ashuntantangs (Children of George and Catherine)