Innocent Chukwuma? Even you?

I AM shocked! I am speechless!! Lost for words!!!

Hard to believe! 

One of the most decent, humble, brilliant, kind, trustworthy, forthright HUMANs I have ever met! A friend in deed, indeed!

I think God wanted him out of the rot!

May his soul find eternal rest!

PS:

Memories of how we first met have never left me; the simple and pure ambience of it, the innocence his gesture exuded. If you see a pun it is fully and honestly intended.

As I settled into my seat on an aircraft headed for the Gambia, someone stepped slightly behind me, leaned over: Are you going to the Gambia? 

I affirmed. 

“My name is Innocent Chukwuma. I believe we are going for the same conference.” 

He wished all of us a safe flight and returned to his seat. 

We became companions through the duration of our stay in Banjul. And we would play table tennis together when we had the time. In all his humility he would not pretend that I could overcome him at that game and he beat me so often I was tempted to stop playing against him. That’s how honest he was!

And that’s how it began, our friendship which has lasted for the rest of his life; a friendship in which my only obligation was to take, say ‘thank you’ and deliver faithfully and diligently on whatever obligations we sometimes shared. 

That’s how forthright he was. A man whose word was his bond!

All those who claim to know him seem to have had the same experience I did. They have so much good to tell that I believe because I can bear witness. Did he give so much, knowing that he had only such a short time to live?

The memories are no longer merely nostalgic. They have become haunting! If there are angel’s amongst men, he was one of them!

*Enakimio, actor, broadcaster and media practitioner, writes from the USA