She was my greatest cheerleader, supporter and critic, especially after dad passed. I am grateful to God that she lived to see me elevated to the Inn… - Beatrice Aboyade

Mum was extremely generous and would constantly beg us, despite our protestations, to let her know if we needed anything even till she breathed her last. She lived life on her own terms. She did it her way. Mum, it’s so long, but not goodbye. You now belong to the ages… Requiescat in pace.

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.

Without consciously realising it my mum was my first female role model. Seeing her just get out there and doing it meant I never once thought of myself as a disadvantaged female. She gained her Ph.D in Literature in English after her first three children were born. She became a professor (one of the first five female professors in Nigeria) and reached lofty heights all of which I took for granted and thought was the norm; indeed, as I grew up and entered the world of employment it was a rude shock to realise that the reality was far different for many women. By then it was too late for me to think of myself as anything but able, unhampered by the little detail of being female. For that I am thankful.