Joseph Akinyede
I first met Aunty Lala, as I used to call her, in December, 1979 at her resident in the University of Lagos, on invitation by her foster daughter, Miss Kehinde Ipaye, during the early part of our courtship. I was already offered a seat and a drink by Kehinde, waiting for her to join me from one of the rooms. As soon as she came in and sat down, we exchanged greetings and started to converse. She was so meticulous in her observation and questions as if to get to the root of the matter and form an opinion about me. Initially I was tense but she was more relaxed and posted her questions to me one after the other. In the end she said, “I see a lot of potentials in you if you can begin right away to build a career in academics”. She encouraged me to follow up my admission to ABU for a Master’s degree which had earlier been put on hold.. Two days after this engagement, I went to the train station and took my journey from Lagos to Zaria to commence a Master’s degree programme in Geology. By the time she was living Nigeria finally for the UK in 1980, I had already gone halfway in the MSc degree programme. I found out she would do anything that would promote the interest of her daughters.
Aunty continued to show interest in my career, as well as our lives together as a couple even in faraway University of Glasgow where was engaged after she left Nigeria.. She came all the way from UK to attend our wedding in December, 1981. She monitored our progress with satisfaction; she expressed her profound interest in my PhD research programme at ITC, Enschede, The Netherlands. She came all the way from Glasgow, on two occasions, to visit us in Enschede during the birth of Samuel, our first son. I couldn’t imagine the extent of her demonstration of motherly love to her first ever grandson to see her and the little boy throwing a ball at each other in an open field. She came again her third visit when we gave birth to our second child, Rachael. It is significant to note that I named our third child, a girl, Lalage, to live a legacy and memory for her.
Aunty Lala was very pleasant and caring as a mother. Back in Nigeria after my PhD programme in Holland, I made it a point of duty to sponsor the trip of Kehinde and each child for annual visitation and holiday in UK to bond with their grandmother. Because of her profound interest in my career, she came with me to attend the annual dinner of the International Academy of Astronautics (IAA), during the 59th IAC in Glasgow when I was admitted into the IAA as correspondence member. She was very inquisitive and would always want to know about my work and space technology as a whole. She was a good listener who would also want to pass beneficial message across. During the death of her younger sister, Jacka, she found my letter of consolation very comforting and she said she would pass my message to the rest of the family. Among the succinct words used is the fact that she (Aunty Lala) had lived a fulfilled life serving humanity and that a day is coming when both the dead and the living shall meet to part no more. Until then rest in the bosom of your God Aunty Lala, Adieu, your son in-law, Sola.