Felicia Ogochukwu Gbazueagu: Heaven Couldn’t Wait

Uchenna Gbazueagu

They say lightning doesn’t strike the same place twice, and you only get to experience certain people once in a lifetime. Their journey is usually swift because they are here to leave a mark on the hearts and souls of everyone they encounter. They are sent to fulfil God’s mandate, which is to love. Be aware of these people, take notice of them, honor and appreciate them because their time here is limited. For these souls, heaven can’t wait to have them back. My mother, the late Mrs. Felicia Ogochukwu Gbazueagu (Nee Aguigwo) was one of such special persons.

Born on the 10th of June 1963 into the family of the late Mr. Dennis and Angelina Aguigwo of Obinagu Akpugoeze, Oji River LGA, Enugu State, the Felicia Gbazueagu was the second child of her parents. As an infant, Felicia and her mother moved to Jos in Northern Nigeria to join her father, a civil servant with the Federal Ministry of Statistics. When war broke out, the little Felicia and her parents relocated to Akpugoeze to experience village war time life.

At the end of the war, her father was posted to the Ministry of Statistics in Makurdi, and was later joined by his family. Unfortunately, in January 1979, Felicia lost her father in fatal auto crash. It seemed like their world had ended. However, the family kept trudged on, grappling with the situation.

She started her primary school in Enugu, but concluded it in Makurdi, Benue State before heading to Queens School Enugu for her secondary education. She became an auxiliary teacher at Girls’ Secondary School Akpugoeze in 1984. In 1985, she gained admission into the University of Science and Technology Port Harcourt to study Business Education and subsequently obtained her Master’s in Business Administration from the University of Nigeria Nsukka. An amazon, who fervently pursued knowledge, she also attended several courses and seminars both locally and internationally, and obtained several other qualifications.

She worked in the Registry Department of the Enugu State University of Technology and rose to the position of Assistant Registrar. She also served as a member of the Secondary School Education Commission before joining the family business as a Director.

The late Felicia married Chief Gbazueagu Nweke Gbazueagu in 1987 and they were blessed with three daughters; Adaora, Uchenna (myself) and Chiamaka, and of course, a son in-law Azubuike Arah and a grandchild Obiamaka Chiewetaku Arah both of whom she was so fond of.

My mother took ill in May 2021, and could have survived if money could buy life because the best facility and doctors in Abuja attended to her before proceeding to London with her husband and our father, G.N.G, on the 11th of June 2021. Unfortunately, as Shakespeare writes in “Julies Caesar”, death, a necessary end, will come when it will come. She passed on in the early hours of Wednesday, 4th of August.

My mother, we wished and still wish you spent more time with us here because we felt that your sojourn here was far too short. But God’s will supersedes ours. He, who truly knows what’s best, whispered to your raging storm “peace be still”, and to your weary soul “come home” because heaven couldn’t wait.

I know we are dear to God’s heart, because he chose to bless us with the gift of you. It’s been less than two months of your absence and our hearts are in agony. I can imagine how much God must have missed you for the 58 years you were here with us. So, He made the decision to call you into his light because He and all of Heaven couldn’t wait.

Obviously you were an angel here on earth. So, I believe that on seeing your distress, the angels in heaven cried out to God, pleading with Him to bring you home for they too couldn’t wait. You fought a good fight and we know that our loss is heaven’s gain. So in our moments of weakness, when the pain seems so unbearable, we will simply remind ourselves that heaven couldn’t wait.

To our guardian angel Felicia, as you soar higher, please continue to watch over us from above. “How lucky we are to have had someone who makes saying goodbye so hard.” So we welcome this grief, because “grief is the price we pay for love”. Although we must carry on and live life without you here on earth, we gladly await our own call, because like the angels and the entire inhabitants of heaven, we too can’t wait to see you again.

You gave us everything, much more than we deserved. You made us feel special, like we could slay dragons and conquer the world. You celebrated our milestones, even the smallest feat. We may not have said it often but we appreciate you for all that you did. In spite of the cards you were dealt and the heartaches you felt, it did not deter the sacrifices you made, and the selfless love you gave. So, I fully understand better yet I thoroughly comprehend why heaven couldn’t wait.

You gracefully ran the heavenly race and reached the finish line like the champion that you are. We salute the great woman you were. We appreciate the phenomenal daughter, sister, wife, mother and grandmother that you were. We cherish the incredible bond of friendship that we shared, we will remember the laudable legacy you have left and we will always, always be thankful for the beautiful soul that you are.

To our creator, the one who knows all things, who makes all things, the one who gives and who takes, I pray that You will once again come through as you always have in the past and be the God to the widower and to the motherless. So, when night comes and everyone departs, You will envelope us in your love and reassure us that when it doesn’t make sense, faith steps in; where we see a grave, you see a transition; where we see an end, you see a beginning; and when we don’t understand You’ll remind us that this was an act of love and mercy. You alone can allow and disallow, and you only allowed it because heaven couldn’t wait.

So henceforth, whenever we are asked: Why, what happened? Let our response simply be that heaven couldn’t wait.

Adieu Feli-city. Adieu Mamamiya. Adieu Ononobieze. Adieu our First Lady. Till we meet again, we love you infinitely!

Gbazueagu writes from Akpugoeze, Enugu State.