It’s so long, but not goodbye. - Beatrice Aboyade

My parents encouraged us to read, read, read. Books, Encyclopaedia, comics, magazines, you name it. We got our love of literature, poetry and history from them, especially mum. English Literature was one of my favourite subjects, as was History, no surprises. From Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night to The Iliad and The Odyssey to Soyinka’s The Man Died to Achebe’s No Longer at Ease/Things Fall Apart, to poetry The Journey of the Magi, to The Renaissance, she broke it down effortlessly for me.

Mum was a disciplinarian though not in the physical sense – as to the latter at best she might use her slippers, but the truth was she was no dab hand and couldn’t beat anyone to save her life! We would usually just pretend to cry so she could let us go, whilst we ran off to have a good laugh.

Mum was an intrepid traveller and together with dad, and sometimes alone, visited far flung places. Funlayo and I inveigled ourselves on to some of those trips. I am glad and thankful to God that in the last few decades of her life I also, was able to take her to new places.