BREAKING THE SILENCE AND SADNESS OF GRIEF!!!
It’s taken this long for me to digest the fact that our dear sister-wife, Joy Okoye is not ever going to be with us again. TOTALLY SHOCKING! This is something that is still so hard to absorb because none of us saw it coming. Our collective hearts are heavy with grief, with no words to describe the shock, convey the depth of our sorrow or express our profound sadness at this sudden loss.
Our sympathy is with Joy’s family, especially her Dad, because she was the ROCK of their household, the one who held it all together. May God console them all.
Our ‘wives’ Whatsapp chat page has been significantly frozen, a reflection of the deafening silence that we have all been stunned into, since Sunday, when the sad news broke. It is hard not to recognize the poignancy of our last two posts, serendipitously focused on the word ‘RISEN’!
That 'has to be' where our Joy now is, right now… RISEN, and with our Lord. Departing this earth on the morning after Good Friday, was literally following our Christ to the very last, an inherent sign of the Divine. And then to leave this earth in her sleep? Well, that is sublime!
Joy was a good person! When I first met Joy, I had the privilege of sitting with her, on the Black Perspective Advisory Committee for British Association for Adoption and Fostering, in the late 90s and early 2000s and grew to respect her intellect, sound reasoning, knowledge about Black issues and its impact on our children in the UK, enormously.
And then many years later, discovered she had been very good friends with my lifelong closest friend, Dzifa Wilkinson, all that time, yet none of us were aware of it, until we all finally met together at a gathering. Personally, I Thank God for the privilege of sharing in her beautiful life on earth, as well as enjoying her wisdom, extraordinary generosity, humour, and prolific posts on our chat, which we are all already missing.
Now that she is with our Lord, we petition Jesus as an act of compassion and love, to enfold her in his Merciful Love, granting her a strong experience of his reassuring embrace, to welcome her, as she transits to the other side. May our Precious JOY’s soul be perpetually surrounded by God’s angels and his glorious Blessings! May perpetual light shine upon Joy and may her beautiful soul rest in the gentle arms of our Lord Jesus Christ, in perfect peace.
"Joy, you will never be forgotten. There will always be a very special place in our hearts, reserved for you and etched in our memories where you will remain forever."
God Bless Joy’s beautiful Soul! “Joy, Yaa wor Ojogbaang!”
By Sally Baffour