TRIBUTE TO MIMI ZUNGWE-IHYUMAN ON YOUR 1ST POST-HUMOUS BIRTHDAY. In the early days of Newswatch Magazine, it conducted a survey in which respondents were asked that if they had the opportunity of meeting God and they had only one question to ask Him what that question would be. I found the answer of the famous journalist and co-founder of Newswatch Ray Ekpu most interesting. He said his question would be “GOD, WHY ARE YOU LIKE THIS?” God is God and He is like He is because He is infallible and all-knowing, and His ways are unlike ours. Painful as your passing is, Mimi, I situate it in the context of the Almighty’s omniscience and the immutability of our destinies. When is the best time to die? Mimi, I thought I knew what people meant when they often say, “life is short”. But you’ve given that saying a very vivid, real and shocking depth of meaning as I, indeed we, have come to terms with reality. I always thought there was still a long, long time; years many more of a happy- if happier lifetime on earth- than even those already lived. But that was not meant to be. For God has disposed differently & we’ve to live with it. Today, August 5th, 2013, you’ll have attained the age of a score & ten, & ten years shy of two-score (40) when life is said to truly begin- by human reckoning. Though the faithful are promised three score & ten, & if strong four scores, the Almighty also said those He loves, He calls early to Himself. What further proof do we need for God’s love for you, Mimi? I stayed up in prayerful thought through last night till day dawned- not so as to script a letter, call up, or send an SMS any longer in acknowledgement of your birthday- a gesture that you anticipated from me since 1994- but contriving how now to communicate these thoughts to you, & all of what had been unspoken. Mimidoo Zungwe! (gives me a certain consolation calling your full maiden name) You were God’s gift to us: I dare say candidly- also indeed about the best gift one could ever have or hope for in a child, friend, spouse or other! Guileless. Given another chance, you know I, & indeed many more would admittedly choose you over & over again (for me, as friend and sister). Now, MLZ, we give you back to God as our gift & sacrifice. The more painful that giving is, the more I realize that giving you back to God is the best and only option we have. The severity of the pain defies human wisdom & speech. The effect of your passing is never past or itself passing: with each day it’s re-lived in a new, deeper, if profoundly dynamic way. Yet 7 months down the road God has continued to speak to our hearts through it all. So, in your honour we settle for hanging on strong, faithful & hopeful. There’ll be no other “MLZ (MaLiz)”, or “Veracity (or like I inflected- Veracidy)”. Irreplaceable, that is what it is! Your memory’s not distant & never shall it be. To me, you’re akin to what Bice di Folco Portinari was to Dante Alighieri: A mystic anagoge for the divine. Friends don’t come any better. You represented a lot to me and keeping the sanctity of that memory in my heart wherein you’re carried as so to live forever not to be snatched again by anything, ANYTHING, is respectfully perpetuating you still, per sempre, in as deserving a way as it can be done. Nothing we do can be equated with your person & gift. All I do now, & in the future is a token of my love for you. We yield your soul to God so that the One who gives life will lead you to the gift of Risen Life in His Eternity of Light, where even Lazarus is no longer poor. Your life would’ve been fast-paced, but also it was eventful. Thank you for teaching me much. Just smile, Veracidy, smile on me from heaven & let me know you’re okay. I’m waiting to see that. May God forgive your failings & bless you with the gift of eternal life. Rose Kennedy, through all of many tragic bereavements would say, at length: “It’s often said, that time heals all wounds; I disagree. The mind, protecting its sanity covers it with scar tissue and the pain lessens but it’s never gone”. Our Christian hope is of a reunion someday in God’s sight. For me, Mimi, it doesn’t matter when. I pray all the time for you, your spouse, family, other friends and associates with whom I agonize still over your passing. Fortitude and consolation is a gift of the Holy Spirit, & I pray for that for us all. Dona eis requiem in aeternam! Your brother & friend, Fr. T. Matthew Dajo.

Thank you for setting up this memorial to Mimidoo Ihyuman. We hope that you find it a positive experience developing the site and that it becomes a place of comfort and inspiration for you to visit whenever you want or need to.

I am I and you are you, whatever we were to each other that we still are. Speak to me in the easy way which you always used. Why should I be out of mind because I am out of sight? Life means all that it ever meant, it is the same as it ever was.