It was an emotional reunion when
68-year-old Adebisi Coker met friends of her late daughters last
Saturday. Coker lost her two children and her apartment when the entire
structure collapsed in November 2012.
The friends thought she died with her two
children in the incident but later learnt from newspaper publications
that she survived. However, it took them a while to locate where she was
moved to.
When they eventually did get her address,
the young women, who were secondary school mates and friends of Coker’s
deceased daughters – Bukky (30) and Toyin (26), set out to show love to
the grief-stricken mother.
Coker’s eyes were expectant, even though
the burden of her tragedy was unmistakable, when the group with our
correspondent entered her tiny apartment on Borno Way, Ebute-Meta, Lagos
– a temporary abode relations provided for her.
About 35 friends of Bukky and Toyin had
organised themselves and contributed money in order to ease the
suffering of the old widow.
Coker managed a smile as the group
entered the apartment. She made frantic efforts to make them comfortable
even though the room had only two plastic chairs.
She was obviously overjoyed to see her
daughters’ friends, although the tragedy seemed to have wiped out the
ability to express the joy on her face.
She dashed into the room to get a bag of sachet water she had bought in anticipation of their visit.
“You must take this. You have to take something,” she told them.
The widow thanked them profusely for
their visit while the young ladies tried not to mention the names of her
daughters, so as not to arouse sad feelings in her.
“We will ensure we continue to do what we
can to cater for you, to ensure you do not suffer or beg for food as
far as our ability permits us,” Augustine Okitiakpe, who spoke for the
group, told Coker.
The young women, 10 of whom represented
the group, gave the widow a cheque of an undisclosed amount. They also
gave her some household materials.
Coker’s lips quivered with emotion as she
received the cheque. “This will take care of me for a long time,” she
said. The widow launched into a litany of prayers for the young women.
They were an answer to her prayers, she said.
“You have all become my daughters. I am
very happy that even though I lost my children. I have gained another in
all of you. Nothing like this will ever happen in your homes. You will
all live long. Please do keep in touch. I will also try as much as
possible to keep in touch with all of you,” Coker told them.
Coker’s case whipped up a lot of sympathy
from the public after her house at the Jakande Low Cost Housing Estate,
Isolo, Lagos, collapsed on November 20, 2012 in the middle of the
night.
Her only two children were crushed on their beds. She could barely retrieve few papers from the ruins of the building.
“My children still come to me in my
dreams. I miss them so much more than anyone can understand. Even the
day before yesterday, they still appeared to me in my dream. They sat at
the edge of my bed,” Coker told our correspondent.
Asked if they say anything in particular
to her anytime they visited her in her dream, Coker said they only come
quietly without any word, sit with her awhile and leave.
For over three months since the incident,
Coker has been living on her pension and the magnanimity of her
relations
The help the state government promised her has not been forthcoming.
“I have not heard anything from the
government. I feed and transport myself to the hospital with my meagre
pension. So far as the pension keeps coming, I will be able to go to the
hospital for the physiotherapy on my leg,” Coker explained.
She sustained an injury on her leg when the house collapsed and has been receiving treatment for this at a hospital in Apapa.
The widow said she wanted nothing but
“the strength and grace of God when asked what she yearned for most to
ease her day to day living.
“The house that collapsed was bought with
the entitlement I got after I retired from Shell Petroleum. The rest of
the money went into my children’s education. So right now, I can only
look up to God,” she said.
The women said that they were very glad when they learnt Coker survived the collapse.
Okitiakpe, who had earlier spoken with
our correspondent said, “You cannot imagine how glad we were. We checked
the pages of the newspapers for stories about her so we could get her
address.
“We will be here on her birthday on May 6
just to give her a feel of family love. It is not like we are rich, but
we just want to do whatever we can to ensure that she lives happily to
some extent.
“We were really confused about what to do
for her because we knew it would take a lot to make a change in the
life of someone who was once very comfortable but tragically became
homeless and someone who has nothing within one day.
“We were classmates with Toyin in Maywood
Grammar School, Ebute-Meta. We referred to her as “mummy’s girl” at the
time because she and her sister, Toyin, who was our junior in the
school, were very close to their mother. They were also very quiet
girls.”
These friends of Coker’s children said it
would make a huge difference if the government and spirited members of
the public came to her aid even though she would live out her days with
the memory of what she once had and the family she lost.-punch
No comments:
Post a Comment