GREETINGS!
I know it is VALENTINE'S WEEK and that there's a lot of "LOVE IN THE AIR", most of it, the "NWANTITI" kind.
You bet I am all for it! "CHERI COCOs" do deserve to be celebrated, but so do other loved ones, and certainly not just on February 14th - or on MOTHER'S DAY, for that matter!
That is a fact that Dr. EBENEZER and Mrs. BEATRICE TAYUI definitely understand, or they would not have done what they did back in DECEMBER of 2015!
Here's what the INVITATION they sent out at the time said, very SIMPLY:
"You are cordially invited to a Thanksgiving and a Lifetime Appreciation/Celebration for Mami Clara Tayui at the Presbyterian Church Down Beach Limbe.
DATE: Sunday, December 20th 2015
SERVICE TIME: 9:30 a.m.
RECEPTION: 2:00 p.m.
PLACE: DR. & MRS. EBENEZER TAYUI’S (Residence Adjacent To Savoy Palms Hotel, Bota)
HOSTED BY: Bea & Eb Tayui & Children"
Happened to be in Cameroon at the time to witness, LIVE, the OUTPOURING of sheer, unadulterated LOVE and APPRECIATION for a VERY DESERVING, VIRTUOUS, LOVING, and SELF-EFFACING WOMAN, who, TRUTH BE TOLD, spent most of her life in her PROMINENT husband's shadow. (Common, now!!!)
That notwithstanding, the importance of her role as the SOLID, IMMOVABLE ROCK upon which her/our BABA and her 2 sons stood, is not lost on anyone with even a modicum of "clairvoyance". GENERATIONS of SAKERETTES witnessed it, FIRSTHAND, and even if we may not have quite grasped it then, the WIVES and MOTHERS that we have now become, appreciate her invaluable POSITION in that TAYUI family whose life was played out, DAILY, before our very eyes for 5 of our respective, very impressionable years on planet earth, over a period of 20 consecutive, uninterrupted years!!!!
WHEN, in those 20 years BABA served as PRINCIPAL, did SAKER STUDENTS ever see or hear MAMMY BABA "CHAKARA PLACE"??
WHEN, did we ever see our BABA with "IODINE & PLASTER" on his head or his arm in a P.O.P. cast resulting from a "MORTAR PESTLE", "PEPPER STONE", "MUKWATA" or even "RUBBER GUN" assault??
WHEN did we ever hear her RANT, RAGE and SCREAM in the AFTER LIGHTS OUT, ABSOLUTE QUIET which was disturbed only by the slurps of COL' WATA GARRI & COCONUT drinkers - and the (real or imagined) wails of "GO-GOs" in "THE VALLEY"???
The answer is NEVER, EVER!!
Instead, as is very EVIDENT even from the TRIBUTES that continue to flood the FACEBOOK post announcing her demise, she just was A GOOD WOMAN, SHORT & SIMPLE, and not just because of the BLOCKADE, DODO and KANDA we enjoyed!!!
KUDOS to BEATRICE & EBENEZER TAYUI for MAKING SURE she did NOT leave this world with the slightest shred of a doubt as to her VALUE as a WOMAN and as a MOTHER!
Those of us who were able to join The NKWANYUO & TAYUI FAMILIES ... and BATE NICO, THE LIMBE OROKO GROUP, a BEVY OF SAKERETTES, etc. to CELEBRATE her back in 2015, feel MIGHTY BLESSED, and are all the better for it! TRUST ME!
If you'd like to go back in time to that SUNDAY in DECEMBER of 2015 here are the LINKS to the SakerPride CAPTIONED (AMATEUR) PHOTO ALBUM and VIDEO SNIPPET that would help you do just that:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/d4dyP6HYfsJn6w672
https://vimeo.com/255330386
GOD REST YOUR GENTLE SOUL, MAMMY CLARA TAYUI!!! YOU WILL ALWAYS OCCUPY A VERY SOFT SPOT IN OUR SEVERAL & COLLECTIVE MEMORIES!!! That's a FACT!
Respectfully and in SYMPATHY,
Egbe Mbiwan Monjimbo
(PROUD & VERY THANKFUL BLOCKADE & "GRAH NUT" CONSUMER - September 1976 to June 1981)
