Daddy,
I am yet to come to terms with the reality of your passing into transition. In fact, I am still searching for answers on how to fill the void your passing has left and reflecting about my formative years when I looked up to you as a father and role model.
I vividly remember when you were about to take delivery of your “Lada 1500S” back in the mid 70’s. As a child this filled me with excitement. I remember playing out on the grounds of “Powercam”, Bota, Victoria, anticipating your arrival at any moment with the new car. When you finally drove in with the factory new “SW990B” number plated vehicle, the atmosphere is the house was electrifying. With childhood bewilderment I ask you how you did it. Your response then was: “When you really want something, and work hard for it, you’ll eventually get it”.
Such were the values and virtues you instilled into us at a very early age: humility, discipline and hard work. Rather than serving the niceties of life to us on a plate, which you could easily have afforded given your professional position back then, you taught us how to use a solid education as a tool in getting those niceties ourselves from the source. You laid the foundation, and gave us the building blocks in excelling in whatever we were to embark on in later life. For this I wish to thank you again.
Your demonstration of the meaning of family and culture, exemplified by the generous acts you bestowed upon your siblings and the Kembong courses in general, certainly did not go unnoticed and continue to shape the lives of others till this day.
My flashbacks also take me back to the years the family spent in Douala. You allowed us to explore the boundaries of adolescence without an overly firm hand, but still serving as a mentor to us along the way. I remember the encouragement you gave me, when prior to my A’Levels I flooded the mailboxes of German Universities in my quest to get a higher education abroad. Your message to me back then was: “If you are good, nobody can stop you”. That message has accompanied me throughout career, and continues to motivate me right up to this day. Another of your words of wisdom which was to have a lasting effect on me, and which I am now passing on to my own children, is: “Whatever you do, do it quickly. Defer not till the evening what the morning may be accomplish.”
I left for further education abroad in September 1986 leaving you behind, vibrant, in the best of your years and at the peak of your career. Although we were reunited on many occasions in subsequent years, I wasn’t home long enough to watch your transformation into an old, and later, senile man, at close distance. This is a burden that will weigh hard on my shoulders for the rest of my days.
In the early years my choice of a wife from a different cultural background led to turbulence within many family circles. Daddy, you were steadfast in your support for my decision as evidenced in the hospitality you bestowed upon Anke and myself during our visit in April 2000. For this I wish to thank you again.
With a strike of destiny all of that was to change in your twilight years. Your inability to communicate meaningfully in your last years in this realm of existence, and later to even recognize us, was very hard to handle. It was a painful experience of the maxim in life that nothing should be taken for granted. How I wish you could still pass on to us your words of wisdom, as we face the huge task ahead of us in filling your large shoes.
Now you’ve gone to join our forefathers who went before you. I take solace from the fact that you lived a long and fulfilled life, and thank God for it. I pray that your soul finds eternal rest with the Lord, and that you guide us in preserving your legacy – the Abhon_AKOACHERE family union.
Daddy, I miss you very much. You will always be in my heart until we meet again on the other side.
Your son,
Ashu