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There were prayers for the repose of the souls of the deceased. Part of activities at the event was the opening and dedication of JAY’S GARDEN, a beautiful eco-friendly haven/centre created in memory of Late Olatunji Okusanya Jnr, a.k.a JAY at Merrymaid Water Gardens Limited, where this creative and industrious youngman served as a director. At the event was mother of Tunji Okusanya Jnr., Dame Mobola Erogbogbo, from the popular Erogbogbo family of Ikorodu, Lagos. This woman is very humble and unassuming despite her rich pedigree. She was the brain behind JAY’S Garden. Mobola Erogbogbo, a woman of virtue, who rarely grants interview spoke to City People Society Editor, TAYO FAJORIN on how life has been for her in the last one year that she lost her son and his father.
On how she has been coping in the last one year. She said she was happy, and that “Jesus Christ has been my pillar, and the Lord has been my succour”. I give all the glory back to High and He will continue to be praised at all times.” On what she will miss most about his son, ‘I will miss his companionship, we were very close, we shared meals, and he was a good confidant with whom I shared any matter, his pep talks, and so many others, he indeed an embodiment of a good and beloved son.”
When asked what her reaction was when she heard the news of the death of her son and his father in one fell swoop, she shook her head and said, ‘’I felt very devastated, it was Unbelievable but the incident has increased my trust and dependence on God’’. She immortalized her son by opening a Garden in his memory, The Garden is called Jay’s Garden coined from his nickname, and from a bird known as Jay.
Her utmost happiness is that she knows her son loves what she has done for him, and in her words. “I can feel Jay loving it, the best memorial of all in my loving heart. On what has kept her going in the midst of all these, she enthused, “Grace of the Almighty God”. In a little way she narrated how the incident happened ‘” “On October 2, last year, Jay was the one who took me to the airport. I was going to England for an exhibition. He took me to the airport and we checked in. As I was about to go in, he said: ‘Mummy come back. I want us to take photograph together’ and I jokingly said to him: ‘Jay, what do you mean by photograph? I hope you want me to get to this London safely because we have never taken photograph at the airport before’. I asked him why he wanted the photo.
He said:‘Mummy, let’s just take it’, and an employee who accompanied us to the airport took the photograph, and he immediately sent it to his sister in London, even before I got there. “While on board, there was a little turbulence and my mind flashed back to the photograph, and it created anxiety in me, but I had no clue that it had nothing to do with me but was all about my dear son and his father. When I arrived in the UK, I tried his father’s line to inform him that I had arrived safely but his line did not go through. I called his line and luckily it rang and we spoke extensively. I even told him about the turbulence we experienced on air, and my fear about the picture. We laughed about it, and he told me about the publication that Thisday did on him, and he was so excited about it, and wanted me to see it. I had no clue that it was going to be my last discussion with him.
“In the morning, I woke up and my grandson came to my room and appealed that I should put on the computer for him for 10 minutes because his parents won’t allow him watch TV during the week, and when they all left home, I decided to go and sleep but I could not sleep. I tried to put on the TV but could not until my daughter came back and put the TV on Sky News and I saw the news highlight: ‘Associated Airline crashed in Nigeria, two dead”. I shouted and informed my daughter that it was Junior’s plane because I was aware of the arrangement for the company to convey Agagu’s body to Akure before I left Nigeria.
“It was about 9.45am, and we called Junior’s phone and it rang but no response. We started calling Nigeria, but nobody was willing to tell us anything, and people I had not spoken to for a long time were all calling me, and my daughter and it was at that time I knew something had gone wrong. All of them failed to tell us the true situation until a family friend called and I asked him not to lie to us about what had happened. He said ‘Mummy, it’s all about you’ and I know that the worst had happened. It was like a dream, and it has not been an easy experience. I had to cancel my booking for the exhibition and came back to Nigeria.
“I was very fond of him. We were living together and he was supposed to get married this year, and each time I teased him about scattering things, he would say it was only for a while that when he got married, I would be the one missing and sending for him. I did not know that it was not going to be.” In his memory, I have created this Jay’s Garden which is basically a section of Merry Maid Water Garden. In his lifetime, he was a bird lover, just like me, but he was more of a fanatic and these things just evolved while we were cleaning up this place. When the idea came, we decided to call it Jay Garden’s because apart from my son being called Jay, there is a bird also called Jay. “He got the love for birds from me and his dad who was a bird lover too. They had some bird cages with all sort of birds in their office at MIC Funnerals. But he was more into it than us.
“On Saturday morning in the house, he would just sit down, even with his last kobo, he would buy food for birds. “Jay’s Garden is far beyond this space. It is all encompassing; we are going to have competition, and we will have talk for school children. It will be a foundation that will continually get young people involved in looking after, and respecting garden birds. Some children just stand on the road and they start stoning birds; part of what Jay’s Garden stands for will be to discourage children from doing that and educating them that the birds that they don’t care about are very important in our lives because these birds eat up insects that could affect our food crop, bugs as well.”
Dame Mobola Erogbogbo is an organic water garden expert, she owns Merrymaid Gardens Limited in Shomolu area of Lagos, she is the brain behind most of the Fountains and Gardens around Lagos State, churches and events centres, in and outside Lagos.
About Unknown
Deji Sadiq, a.k.a DEJI OF LAGOS is a LASU trained Economist turned freelance journalist, a Blogger, an information strategist, a public affairs analyst and a committed activist with a passion for equal opportunities.
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