I remember how she wept that day \u2014 not loudly, not dramatically, but with the quiet heartbreak of someone whose spirit felt torn. I remember how she took her wrapper, wiped her eyes, and said:
\u201cOyamare, I\u2019m going to Jesus. Only He knows what to do with sorrow.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
She took me with her to the Blessed Sacrament chapel. I watched her kneel, her hands shaking, her head bowed so low it almost touched the pew. And there, in that silence only the Eucharist can hold, she whispered: \u201cLord, I return who You gave. Receive him.\u201d<\/strong> On our way home, she told me something I did not understand then \u2014 but which returned to me today with startling clarity: \u201cThose who die in God do not wander. They go home.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n And now \u2014 today \u2014 her first son has gone home too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n My uncle was her first son \u2014 the pillar every mother leans on as her family grows. It is easy to feel the sting of loss before anything else. But grief, I have learned, is not only pain. And our faith gives it somewhere to rest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Catholic teaching tells us that death is not an ending; it is a rising. My grandmother believed this with her whole heart. She lived with Heaven in her eyes long before she saw it with her soul. And I know \u2014 I know \u2014 that when her first son arrived, she recognised him instantly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Maybe she said, \u201cMy son, you came early.\u201d We, the living, remain with the ache. There is a line from Scripture that feels truer today than ever:<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cFor we know that when this earthly tent is destroyed, Two tents have been folded this week. We who are still here are reminded that life is fragile, but also purposeful. Losing two people so close together makes the world feel tilted. But buried beneath the shock is a quiet truth:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Those who belong to God never walk alone into death. Today, when I heard of her first son\u2019s passing \u2014 just three days after hers \u2014 I did what she taught me to do. May their souls, and the souls of all the faithful departed, through the mercy of God rest in peace. And if you are reading this today\u2026 Yours with love and memory,<\/p>\n\n\n\n PS: If you want to follow the complete series of Alice The Matriarch, you can find it below:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Day 1 – Where My Story Truly Begins – Ol\u00fa Ab\u00edk\u00f3y\u00e8<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n DAY 2 \u2014 When Mama Told Me to Walk – Ol\u00fa Ab\u00edk\u00f3y\u00e8<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Her mirror.
Her living proof that the strength she carried had roots and branches.
Their lives were intertwined long before we arrived; and somehow, their departures have become intertwined too. Not because death is cruel \u2014 but because God, in His own mysterious timing, gathers His children one by one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
To think of the children he left behind.
To think of my mother \u2014 now the oldest in a line she didn\u2019t expect to lead so soon.
To think of the strangeness of losing two people in one family, three days apart.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Grief is also love that is looking for where to go.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A return.
A homecoming.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Maybe he smiled the way first sons do.
Maybe she held him the way mothers hold their children, even when they are grown.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But they \u2014 they rise.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
we have a building from God,
eternal in the heavens.\u201d<\/em>
\u2014 2 Corinthians 5:1<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
Two lights went out from the earth \u2014
but lit brighter in eternity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We are reminded that goodness matters.
Kindness matters.
Love matters.
Faith matters.
Because any of us can be called at any time \u2014 and what remains is the life we lived, the love we gave, and the God we trusted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
They walk into His arms.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
I went before the Blessed Sacrament, just as she did the day her nephew died.
I knelt where she once knelt.
I prayed the way she once prayed.
And there, in that same holy quiet, I honoured a mother and her son \u2014 reunited.
Not by tragedy,
but by mercy,
by timing only Heaven understands.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
May their journey home be light.
May their memory be a blessing.
And may the rest of us live well, live kindly, live gently \u2014
so that when our own time comes,
we too will recognise the God who calls us home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
maybe say a small prayer for those you have lost too.
Call their names in your heart.
Hold them for a moment.
We are all walking this earth one breath at a time, and love \u2014 real love \u2014 does not end at the grave.
It travels.
It remains.
It waits for us on the other side.<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/oluabikoye.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/image-1.png\")
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