BEVERLY HILLS, July 04, (THEWILL) – Chimamanda Adichie has penned an emotional tribute to her late father, Professor James Nwoye Adichie, a professor of Statistics, who died on June 10, 2020.
The novelist, who is also a feminist, posted her tribute to her diseased dad on her Facebook page.
She wrote: “And just like that my life has changed forever. June 7, there was Daddy on our weekly family zoom call, talking and laughing. June 8, he felt unwell.
“Still, when we spoke he was more concerned about my concussion. June 9, we spoke briefly, my brother Okey with him. “Ka chi fo,” he said. His last words to me. June 10, he was gone.
“Because I loved my father so much, so fiercely, so tenderly, I always at the back of my mind feared this day. But he was in good health. I thought we had time.
“I thought it wasn’t yet time. I have come undone. I have screamed, shouted, rolled on the floor, pounding things. I have shut down parts of myself.
“We are broken, bereft, holding on to one another, planning a burial in these COVID-scarred times. I’m stuck in the US, waiting. The Nigerian airports are closed. Everything is confusing, bewildering.
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“Sleep is the only respite. On waking, the enormity, the finality, strikes – I will never see my father again. Never again. I crash and go under. The urge to run and run, to hide from this.”
Before the death of the professor, the writer narrated that they had planned to document the stories of her great grandmother but death struck the final blow.
She continued: “I saw him last on March 5th in Abba. I had planned to be back in May. We planned to record his stories of my great grandmother. Grief is a cruel kind of education.
“You learn how ungentle mourning can be, full of anger. You learn that your side muscles will ache painfully from days of crying. You learn how glib condolences can feel.”
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