It was a sad moment for the Oritsejolone family of Azama community in Gbaramatu Kingdom, Warri South-West council area of Delta State, as the Project Manager of the Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC, Engr. Jeremiah Oritsejolone, and other family members, honoured a golden mother, late Madam Ode Queen Oritsejolone Ogun Nee Yokoto, with a befitting burial rites on Saturday, November 2, 2024.

According to the family members in a notice released and signed on behalf of the children by Engr. Oritsejolone, the late Madam Ode Queen Oritsejolone, who hails from Wulu Idumu in Kurutie community, Gbaramatu Kingdom, passed away in the early hours of Saturday at the age of 115 years.

Though the funeral rites was seen by sympathisers as a celebration of life, however, for the families of the deceased, it was still a moment of grief as the late golden mother played a significant role in the family, thus creating a vacuum that can never be refilled in their lives.

Survived by only one child, Mrs Modukpe Essien who is married to Mr. Willing Essien, the late Madam Ode Queen Oritsejolone was seen as a mother and grandmother (due to her age) by the family and even to other members of Azama community where she lived most of her lives.

Speaking about the legacies of the late Madam Ode Queen Oritsejolone, one of her stepsons, Mr. Mark Tamaraenade Oritsejolone, in his tribute said, "Mama is a caring mother, and to us as a family. We see Mama as a grandmother to us because she's over 100 years. She lived with us as a mother and as a grandmother who advised and cared for us.

"Mama contributed a lot, even at the time she was struggling with my father to train my elder brothers. Mama is a very good woman; sometimes most people don't even know that she's even a stepmother to us because they see her as our grandmother, the woman who gave birth to my mother because of how we have lived for years," he added.

Mr. Tamaraenade also confessed that his late stepmom demonstrated the legacy their father left behind which is one of forging a bond of unity among family members.

"The way we care for our mother that is the same way we care for her as well, even sometimes we care more for her than our mother because she has advanced; and it's a lifeline my father has dropped down to us—everybody living in one accord, in peace, as one family; there is no separation.

"We see her as not just a mother but a grandmother to us," he re-emphasised, and added, "Mama has contributed a lot as a mother to the family after the death of her husband, my father; she has played the role of a mother and we accept her as a grandmother in the family."

Despite paternally from Kurutie community, a social wake-keep ceremony held in Azama in honour of the deceased with families and sympathisers paying their last respect to the late Madam Ode Queen Oritsejolone.

"The reason why the wake-keep was held in Azama is because of the love for her as a mother and as a grandmother. We appealed to the family to honour her in our own community, that is our father's land, in her husband community in Aruku quarter. And they didn't argue because they said truly that the family has shown that she's a mother and a grandmother to them because we really took care of her as a mother and as a grandmother," Mr. Tamaraenade revealed.

As the Sun rises on Sunday morning, the remains of the late Madam Ode Queen Oritsejolone was conveyed to her father's hometown, Kurutie, where she was committed to Mother Earth, to rest peacefully until Resurrection Day. May her golden soul rest in the Bosom of the Lord.

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