•The Story Of The Widow Of Dr. TUNJI BRAITHWAITE
Dr. Mrs. Grace Simisola Olubanwo Braithwaite is 90. But Mama does not look it. She could pass for 70. She still walks unaided. And she does not need glasses to read. Her power of recall is superb and she is still her ever jovial self. She loves to dance and she still dances at 90. Nothing has changed about her.
As part of her 90th birthday anniversary, she launched her 133 paged Autobiography titled GRACE To Conquer: Chronicles from the credible of A Matriarch, last Monday 21st March at her Victoria Island residence. In the book Mama revealed how in the summer of 2021, at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, when hundreds of thousands of lives had already been lost as a result of the deadly virus which continued to range nations around the world, mutating from one variant to another, the succeeding one more deadly than the previous one, she contracted the virulent Delta variant.
“Aged 88 and considered to be in the Vulnerable Group, the prognosis was bleak. The ensuring panic within my immediate family and close circle of medical colleagues was enormous”, she explained in the book. “My recovery was miraculously rapid, such much so that I soon became extremely bored, having nothing to do and having nowhere to go”.
“My constant bitter complaints of boredom soon met with an antidote from Laolu, (her daughter) on one such occasion, “now is the time for you to write your Memoirs, Mamaa!”
The following day her Personal Assistant resumed duty at her home and thus Project Grace To Conquer was birthed. The rest is history.
It is a 12 Chapter Book that begins with her early life in Abeokuta and ends with And The Legend Went Home which reveals how she took the death of her husband.
“Can I ever forget the event that preceded his transition to glory? It was so sudden and a great shock to me. He had gone for his daily morning exercise at the gym located downstairs.
I was upstairs preoccupied with some household duties. I didn’t miss Tunji immediately. After all, he was at home and he usually occupied himself with all sorts of activities. But unknown to me, he was in the midst of a health crisis in the gym. He had apparently been incapacitated and was unable to call for help. It was only after I noticed that he had been unusually gone for far too long that I decided to find out what he was engaged with. So, I went downstairs, and after looking for him in some places to no avail, I headed to the gym. On getting there, I was shocked and terrified to realize that my husband needed urgent medical attention. After initiating some first aid measures, we moved him to St Nicholas Hospital, Lagos.
His ailment was a shock and came without the slightest warning. He was such a fit person and was in good health. His activities, both physical and spiritual, up to that moment had not suggested any disability or illness of any sort. But we know that the ways of the Lord are unfathomable to the human mind. He knows all things and cannot be held accountable for anything that happens in the world of men. Ours is to seek understanding. Not that I am saying that we must live forever. Perhaps, if that were possible, then people could make claims before the Almighty. But that is not possible. So, death is an inevitability. Maybe we can seek to negotiate with God about the how and why. If that were possible, then I might perhaps have known when my beloved Tunji would pass and adequately prepare myself for my devastating loss.
She describes herself as a Survivour. “I am a person who endures adversity, moves through it and perseveres. The person with resilience remains undefeated.
Now I am a survivor through the grace of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Do I have testimonies? O yes! I need a whole book to tell it in detail, but I know that I am truly a survivor”.
“Twice I was diagnosed with a life-threatening medical condition – not in a Nigerian hospital, but in one of the best hospitals in the UK. I have also been under anaesthesia on ten occasions for medical procedures”.
“Twice the procedures had to be stopped because what was seen in the x-ray which required surgical intervention was no longer seen during the procedure by the naked eye.
On another occasion, a medical condition which I had been nursing with all kinds of medical treatment from the best-known clinicians both here in Nigeria and abroad suddenly disappeared one day. The symptoms never came back.
I know the God a sinner like me serves”.
“He has always been my Healer, Succour, and Comforter. That is why I know that in all of these, I am more than a conqueror through His mercies which are revealed in my life every day”.
Why don’t you get a copy of the book. It is entertaining, educative and stimulating…
