Caroline Amaliwu-Aku Onike (nee Ezisi) fondly called Mmachicholu (Mmachi for short), which translates to beauty conferred by God, an acknowledgement, and praise of God’s goodness and blessings, was born in 1934 to Clement (Agubarize) and Veronica Ezeisi of Umuakunyili in Umuajionu kindred, Nkitaku village, Agulu in Anaocha Local Government Area of Anambra State.
She is the Ada of her family. As her children, her love and care for her parents was for us the first practical lesson in the joy and care of parents. Her love and care for her sisters and only brother, Sir Kingsley Herbert Esizi, schooled us in the sacrifices of family bonding.
EDUCATION: Ma’ama as she was fondly called had no formal education. She is the only one among her siblings without a formal education and this was because she had to make sacrifice of looking after the animals so that her elder brother and those following could go to school. In later years when her children had graduated, she enrolled in an adult education programme and her brilliance shone through among her peers. Her love for education and belief that knowledge is key to a good life made her to encourage and ensure, by supporting her late husband financially and others, that all her children had a good education. Though she did not undergo formal education she lived with one Mrs. Udechukwu at Calabar to learn domestic studies and home management as a young girl. We fondly remember that she was a particularly a neat woman and that penchant for cleanliness and neatness is one of her character traits which she bequeathed to us.
RELIGIOUS LIFE: She was baptized in the Catholic Church and lived a life of prayer. Mmachi had a strong faith in God, always calm and trusting in God’s abiding love. I cannot remember ever seeing her agitated over anything. She believed that God’s time is the best and imbued in us the virtue of patience. A strong member of the CWO both at Agbor and Agulu, she was particularly an ardent member in her parish at St. John the Baptist Catholic Church, Agbor of St. Jude, Igbo, St. Theresa of the Child Jesus and the Legion of Mary. As children, we recall that our days as a family began with the recitation of the rosary at 5:00am. In later years when she had stopped trading, she devoted her time to gardening and prayer. Among so many stories of God’s manifestation of His abiding love, one is worth mentioning. In the sitting room of the family house stands a large size picture of our Lord Jesus Christ which she adorned the head with a red cap, depicting His Kingship. One of the fateful days, as her husband suffered hematuria (blood in urine), she sat facing the image of Jesus and called out to Him saying, “don’t look at me Jesus, will you not help me?” Then she heard a quiet voice say, “make aloe vera and give to him”. It was late evening but she went to the garden, obtained and made the aloe vera juice which she gave him to drink. By the next morning, there was no more blood in the urine. We have also imbibed this love for gardening, planting vegetables, medicinal plants and fruit trees around the home wherever possible.
Related: Life & Times: My Mother Was Amazed By My Husband’s Level Of Patience – Mrs Inuaeyen
BUSINESS LIFE: Ma’ama was a very hard-working woman. After marriage, she began trading at a very early stage. She specialized in wholesale and retail trading in dried meat and fish. She purchased the goods wholesale at Onitsha and would retail at Agbor and neighbouring villages. She with her peers would go as far as to Abudu. When transport was not available or as a result of vehicle problem, she would trek with others carrying one of us on her back for distances of 10 kilometres and more. We always wondered how she and her friends managed to walk such long distances and on reaching home, made dinner for the family. It is only appropriate to salute their tenacity and hard work. As her children, we owe her a debt of gratitude for this and other sacrifices. She often selected the best of the fishes and meat for cooking in the house; she would wash them with coconut husk dipped in salt to ensure that they were thoroughly clean with no grain of sand. We enjoyed her soup with our childhood friends, in particular the bitter-leaf (Onubu) soup, always with generous mouth watering, well cleaned and tenderly cooked meat and fish— dividends of her business.
It was from this business that she supported our late father, Chief Gabriel Okoye Onike (Chinyelugo) in the training of their eight children and many relations on both sides of her family of consanguine and affinity relationships. Many young girls from the village passed through her tutelage to understudy the art of family life and business. Her business also supported our father’s business which at one time or the other spanned operation of chemist shop, transport business, buying and selling of building materials and culminated in the popular Oniks Supermarket in Agbor.
MARITAL LIFE: She was married at a very young age to our late father, Chief Gabriel Okoye Onike (Chinyelugo). They wedded on the 25th day of April 1953 at St. John the Baptist Catholic Church, Boji, Boji Agbor, which remained her parish till death. She is blessed with eight (8) children; four (4) boys and four (4) girls who are all married and blessed with her grandchildren. Thus Ma’ama is blessed with 27 grandchildren (two of whom passed on to glory following the Sosoliso Air disaster of 2005 in Port Harcourt) and a great grand-son. Ma’am’s life was a life of sacrifice. Her great love was mostly shown in her care for our father, her husband, whom she sacrificially cared for through his illness till his death on February 19, 2007.
LAST DAY: Ma’ama was a strong woman and remained strong and healthy until 2016 when she started having pains on the right leg in particular. The Ada of the family, Mrs. Ify Inuaeyen, took her to Lagos where the best doctors took care of her. Even though she had earlier been diagnosed to have high blood sugar, she meticulously through controlled diet brought it under control until recently before her death. Ma’ama was very particular about her diet which she personally prepared until she could not physically cope by 2018. She was in and out of hospital, firstly staying in Asaba with her last son, Chukwudi, and finally in the last eight months with the third son, Chijioke, at Agbor. She was rushed to the Federal Medical Centre in Asaba on Saturday February 15, 2020 where she answered her heavenly call at about 6:00am on Sunday, February 16, 2020.
May her Soul Rest in Peace.
Adieu Mama Frank. Adieu Ma’ama!
Adieu Mmachi-Cholu!! Adieu Amaliwu-Aku!!!
Rest in peace.
