Gladys: Mother full of enduring love - Tribute by son

The history of our relationship was both distant and close.

Physically, I was separated from her at a very young age.

Yet, spiritually, she was close throughout my life. From this standpoint, she was both loving and caring as any mother would be. 

“Auntie Gladys”, as I called her, had to return to Koforidua with my three other siblings — leaving me at the tender age of five in the loving care of my father and stepmother, Madam Afua Buor.

She paid me the occasional visit from Koforidua to see how I was faring. Such visits became regular during the six years of my father’s political imprisonment by Kwame Nkrumah and his CPP at the Nsawam Security Prison. The visits strengthened the bond between us.

I remember she was always enamoured by the loving care heaped upon me by my other mother, Maame Buor. The triangular relationship between my two mothers and myself fortified me to withstand the emotional turmoil of the long absence of my dear father during the years of his political incarceration.

The biggest demonstration of her commitment to my education came when I passed the Common Entrance Examination to go to Opoku Ware School.

In the same year (1963) she passed her entrance examination to enter the SDA Teacher Training College at Asokore, Koforidua. Having forfeited the opportunity to attend Wesley College, Kumasi some 16 years earlier in 1946 (to get married at age 19), this was her lifelong career path to qualifying as a professional teacher.

Yet in the absence of my father, Auntie Gladys was prepared to give up that chance for a second time in her life, to continue teaching to support my secondary education.

In the end, that sacrifice became unnecessary because I was awarded a scholarship to Opoku Ware School as a result of my extraordinary performance at the Common Entrance Examination.

So as fate would have it, she was able to proceed to college in the same year as I entered Opoku Ware School. As students, we used to write to each other.

I still have some of the letters she wrote to me. She wrote about how she was getting on with her studies and always encouraging me to be serious with my academic work.

In more than two decades of my sojourn in England, she visited several times in the summer. During those years, our relationship blossomed and we got to know each other better.

One of her proudest moments was when she and my father accompanied me to Cambridge to receive my Doctor of Philosophy (PhD. Cantab) degree from that famous university.

Such a fine lady. Her sense of humour was terrific. She was mild-mannered and a true disciplinarian, as you would expect of a professional teacher.

You could not escape her sense of fairness and firmness. She believed in strong Christian ethics, which were driven by the strict Methodist upbringing under the tutelage of her elder brother, Mr Akwasi Adjepong of blessed memory. A great believer in hard work, her elegance shone through her appearance and the environment in which she lived.

My heart goes out to my wife, Genevieve, and to all my siblings, Osei Asibey, Owusu Agyeman (Deceased), Akua Afriyie, Dinah and Gifty, for being so generous with their time and resources to ensure the maximum personal comfort of our mother until her very peaceful exit.

Kwabuaa, until we meet again, rest in the bosom of the Lord.