My Dearest Mummy, Writing to each other while we were temporarily apart, was always one of the things we both loved to do. Notes, cards, letters during boarding school and university or when you were away on a long working trip. This letter though; THIS.... It’s the hardest I have ever had to write in this lifetime. Nothing could have prepared me for the sense of finality, despair, anguish and loss at this untimely separation, especially as you were too ill to speak in the last 22 days we had with you. It feels like an unspoken goodbye hang in eternity, never to be fully acknowledged. I’m like a rudderless ship, I go through the days on auto-pilot because being strong is the only choice I have left. I must be strong. I am my mother’s daughter, after all. Watching the relentless, resourceful, vivacious and ever funloving woman, MY beautiful Mummy, gradually subdued by illness these past few years, has been such a struggle. A struggle first for you, but also for all who have been blessed to know and love you. Mummy, how am I expected to accept that you are no longer here with me? It has never been any other way. I have always been your “handbag”, your “Girlie” for as long as I can remember and in fact, you have been both Mummy and Daddy for most of my life due to circumstances beyond your control. You have been a stellar example in forging ahead and making lemonade out of the many lemons life threw at you. In true Cecilia Akua Pokuaa fashion, you did not succumb without a fight. You fought till the very end and it was absolute torture watching you fight till you could fight no more. Yet there is a sense of something akin to pride, seeing how you gave it your all. I prayed so hard that Jesus would heal you in this time and space. He chose to answer my prayers by transporting you to the side of eternity where sickness and pain can no longer ravage your traitorous body. Therefore, even in this, I give thanks. Growing up, one of my earliest realisations was discovering that I was not your only child. Biologically, I was; in reality, certainly not. And I have always been proud to share you because the breathtaking, unique and beautiful essence that IS Mama Akua aka Auntie Ceci, aka Auntie Cee, aka Grandma aka Mummy is too beautiful to keep to myself. Not that I could have restrained you in any way. You were never one to live outside of your convictions. You know I’m trying hard not to say how stubborn you were most of the time. That relentless streak and resilience was such a big part of you and the foundation of all you achieved in this life. From Daughter Louisa Afi Dela Johnson A Letter To Mummy T R I B U T E 1 1946 MRS. CECILIA JOHNSON 2025 30 A Loving Farewell
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