Fatima Sani Dauda: Saying goodbye to a wonderful sister

As human beings, however, people are bound to feel the emotional and physical loss anytime someone dies. This is the kind of feeling that descended on me on Friday, 2nd of August 2013. Death, that ultimate, sneaky separator, slashed through my family and shattered my heart when it ‘terminated’ the life of someone very dear […]

As human beings, however, people are bound to feel the emotional and physical loss anytime someone dies. This is the kind of feeling that descended on me on Friday, 2nd of August 2013. Death, that ultimate, sneaky separator, slashed through my family and shattered my heart when it ‘terminated’ the life of someone very dear to me in the person of Hajiya Fatima Sani Dauda (whom we fondly used to call Yaya Bebi).
The news of Hajiya Fatima’s death pierced through me like a sharp razor leaving in its wake tears and sorrow.
Family, neighbours, friends and acquaintances mourned and wept as the lifeless body of Yaya Bebi was lowered into the grave that is now her place of abode pending the resurrection day.
After an ardent prayer by all the Imams beseeching the Almighty Allah for the repose of her soul, the grief-stricken funeral crowd involuntarily filed out of the burial ground except of course Yaya Bebi who was left behind lying underneath a mound of earth.
I remained transfixed beside the grave that housed Yaya Bebi, the person I held so dear among millions, my role model, someone who was always there for me to offer useful advices. The memories kept flashing through my mind as hot tears streamed down my chicks and unable to believe that Yaya Bebi was gone forever.
Then I suddenly found solace in the fact that death is a necessary end for every human being. There and then I regained my composure and swallowed the burning anguish that mounted inside me and surrounded the whole of my being.
I prayed for the repose of her soul which was the only option open to me in that circumstance. But again, as a human being, even this relief was temporary: the choking grief refused to leave and I believe it will remain indelibly buried deep inside my heart for the rest of my life.
The grief hit me harder when I returned to her house and saw the pervading grief on the faces of the growing population of mourners and in particular when I saw the three bereaved children she left behind: Maryam, Asiya (Ummita), and Ubaidullah all wearing the grim mask of orphan-hood on their faces.
I felt a painful compassion for them and tried to console them by reassuring them that the death of their mother is also a loss to every member of the family and many others whose life she had touched in one way or another.
I am particularly touched by the death of Yaya Bebi because the two of us had come to become very close over the years and she was scheduled to pay a visit to my house on the fateful day she passed on. What a visit! I just felt I could not bear her lost, assuming I could do anything about it.
Yaya Bebi was very humble, cheerful, and lively to be with, a woman that lived her life for others, a very simple and down to earth person. She was a faithful and committed wife to her husband as well as a role model for her children.
Humble and very conscious of her religion, she was a regular participant in the special night prayers (Tahajjud) until her death. Indeed, she died after attending the night prayer (Tahajjud) and the Subh Prayer before she retired to her bed listening to the Holy Qur’an being recited on a digital player which had become her most intimate companion.
Yaya Bebi will be fondly remembered by her friends, family members and neighbours as a very humble and charitable woman who was always the first to greet and in most cases the last to offend.
I was moved to a fresh bout of tearful grief when three vehicles conveyed her neighbours from Abuja to commiserate with her family in Kaduna and almost all of them had the same remark to make: “Yaya Bebi a humble, charitable woman and would be missed very much in her Maitama neighbourhood.”
She was so religious and full of piety that when her last son Ahmed died a couple of months ago, and I went to condole her, she repeatedly told me that we should all take heart and that all of us would die someday. Alas Yaya Bebi is now gone.
The first daughter to Alhaji Hamza Ahmed, a retired Deputy Inspector General (DIG) of police, Fatima [Yaya Bebi] was born on Tuesday, 9th of December 1975 and her glorious life came to an end on Friday, 2nd of August, 2013.
While I pray for the repose of your gentle soul from the All Merciful and Compassionate God, Yaya Bebi, you will forever be in my thoughts and prayers and will also remain fond of you as I struggle to seek the fortitude to bear this irreparable loss. Rest in perfect peace Hajiya till we meet to part no more insha Allah! Verily, to Allah is the final destination.