There are not many people who can say they appeal to four generations of one family, in our household, Aunty Cece did just that. We lived with our maternal grandmother, she adored Aunty Cece, she looked forward to Aunty Cece’s visits as much as everyone else. Aunty Cece would arrive and Grandma would be really pleased especially if it was lunch time, because she could show off her fufu and soup, and Aunty Cece would always big Grandma up so large, and Grandma would be on cloud nine. Aunty Cece would make time to chat with the “old lady” make her laugh, and anyone who knows Aunty Cece would know her super power was making you feel like you were the only person in the room. Grandma, your Aunty Cece is coming to heaven to be with you. That is Gen 1. Gen 2, our parents were slightly older than Aunty Cece, but you would never guess. They were as thick as thieves. Our dad, Egya was quite scary, but if there was one person who brought him down to earth and got him to relax and just be calm it was Aunty Cece. She will shout out Bizzee, and he will come out like clockwork, ensuring he brought his best brandy, or if it was a very hot day, he would call out for chilled beers and we will all sit together and Aunty Cece will regale us with all sort of stories. Mummy and Aunty Cece was particularly close, and because they were both as dark as the highest quality Ebony, and laughed at the same jokes, people thought they were sisters. When Aunty Cece was in London, they would go shopping together and come back and con us, always telling us they went to Harrods, even when they’d spend the afternoon on Balham High Road . In the early eighties when things were tight in Ghana, these two ladies will sit under the mango tree, catching breeze, and drinking a cold beer, Aunty Cece will call out for one of us to come and light her cigarette, Ghana was so hard we did not have spare matches, so we would have to go to the coal pot and light this cigarette, and return it to owner, coughing and splattering. And Aunty Cece would be like man up and stop being silly, note none of us are smokers!!!! From the Entire Blood-line of Brew-Graves “‘Tis better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all”, (Alfred Lord Tennyson) T R I B U T E 1 1946 MRS. CECILIA JOHNSON 2025 74 A Loving Farewell
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MTAyMTM3NQ==