From the mid-60s when you and my elder brother started courtship and I met you for the first time to 27th June 2026 when we had about half an hour telephone conversation which turned out to be our farewell discussion, our relationship was quite warm and cordial. When you were at the School of Nursing, University College Hospital Ibadan and I was at the University of Ibadan, we exchanged visits and encouraged each other to face our studies squarely. Together, we celebrated your wedding in 1972 and ours in 1973. We all lived then in the house of our late uncle Chief Olu Otebiyi at E8 Oke Ijioni, Ijeda. For some years thereafter your family and ours shared a room in our family house No 1 Igbaiye Close, Odo Oja, Ijeda and we always looked forward annually with our children and our siblings who occupied the “holy wood”, to celebrate Christmas with Pa and Mrs Gabriel Adegboye. Even after my late brother and I were able to move to our individual houses in Ijeda we still converged in the family house annually to celebrate Christmas with our parents. Our relationship was homely, warm and frictionless all through. Your husband was away in Canada and I was in Zaria when my late uncle Joshua Adeyemi Adegboye took ill and was rushed home from Koton Karfi. He was taken to Ile Ife where you were working at the O A U Teaching Hospital and you stood by him in the hospital to salvage the situation but he eventually died because his condition was already bad. You always used your professional training as a Nurse who rose to the rank of a matron to advise and attend to the health needs of whoever sought your intervention. Your husband was already battling with some health challenges even before the demise of our father on 6th July 2009. When he marked his 70th birthday on 12 January 2013, his health condition was still not alright. Thank God that you were always there for him. You deployed your practical experience to look after him. That as well as the prayers and cares of all relations and well-wishers helped to prolong his life. I recall the last time my wife and I visited him to bid him farewell on our way back to Kaduna. After praying with him in his bedroom, you, my wife and I went to the living room, held our hands together to pray again for him as we wept profusely to call on God for His divine intervention. In less than a week after this, precisely on 3rd March 2015, you called me to announce the demise of your beloved husband. I thanked you for standing by him to the end and told you to take solace in the fact that he had gone to rest in the bosom of the Lord. You and the children did not allow the demise of your husband and father to create a vacuum in the role he used to play in the family in his lifetime. On my way to Ibadan from Kaduna on 7th Nov 2024 to attend Oluwaseun Adegboye’s 70th birthday slated for 8th Nov 2024, I decided to stop over at home to check after you when you told me you were not feeling well and would be unable to attend the programme; you drove to Ilesa-Ijoko junction to take me home at 3 am!!! Later that morning you and your driver drove me to Owode Ede, Osogbo where I showed you the house we were erecting as we were planning our final movement to the south. You offered prayers and you expressed joy and stated that our movement to the house will reduce your boredom and loneliness as we would exchange visits regularly and you would also visit your sister, Mrs Dele Ajiboye in between. You again decided to drive me to Ibadan where we eventually celebrated Seun’s 70th birthday together as the Lord would order it. You did not manifest any serious sign of sickness then. When in March 2025 Niyi called to inform me you were sick and on hospital admission in Abuja, I was surprised. I thank God for his life and those of his siblings for promptly attending to your health challenge. When I visited you in Abuja from Kaduna early into your admission in the hospital, I was happy to see that you were responding to treatment. Thereafter we chatted regularly. My wife too called you regularly and both of you were looking forward to our movement back to the south to actualise the exchange of visits between you in Ijeda and herself in Osogbo. I visited you again in Abuja on 19th May 2026 on my way to Ibadan for the annual Conference of Retired Army Navy and Airforce Officers’ (RANAO) Association. You received me very warmly and I was most delighted to see you looking bright and cheerful. While your carer was preparing dinner for me as instructed at about 8, I told you my mission to Ibadan and from there to Oshogbo to resume work on our house in preparation for relocation. You again expressed joy at the story. We then prayed together before I left your place that night and then flew to Ibadan the following day. We spoke when I was in Ibadan, Osogbo, Lagos and when I returned to base several times thereafter. On 27th June 2026, you called me at about 4:30 pm but the network was poor. You promised to call again later that day and you did. We spoke at length before you gave me an assignment which I reminded you to execute yourself with a proviso that you could get back to me if it became necessary. Early on 30th June Niyi called me to announce your demise that morning in your sleep. The news came to us as a rude shock but we had no choice than to accept the reality and console ourselves that you have gone to rest with your Maker. In the course of speaking with Dimeji and Demola that day when I called to commiserate with them, I got to know that you executed the assignment I told you to carry out yourself. That gave me great joy. I had no premonition whatsoever when we discussed on 27 June 2026 and I do not know if you had. What I know is that the Lord worked out His purpose in your life and granted you peace of mind before He called you home. Niyi and his siblings gave you the best of CARE in your lifetime and not after death; you died peacefully in your sleep and NOT in sickness. I feel that was your joy as you exited this world. They will reap what they sowed (awon omo rere yi o gbehin nwon o.) Amen You served the Lord with your whole heart; you were a fully accredited Lay Preacher, an Evangelist, a giver and a lover of humanity. Your home call is a call to rest in peace in the bosom of your Savior. We love you but He loves you much more. Good night.

Sir Col (rtd) Dr Rufus Tunji Adegboye (KJW)

01 September 2026 · 09:40 GMT