Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's mum dies at 78

Nigerian writer and multi-award-winning novelist, Chimamanda Ngosi Adichie have lost her mother,
Grace Ifeoma Adichie (nee Odigwe). Mrs Grace reportedly died aged 78, on
Monday, March 1st in Awka, Anambra State.

According to a family source, “It was very sudden and we are devastated.”

Grace is survived by her six children: Ijeoma, Uchenna, Chuks, Okechukwu,
Chimamanda and Kenechukwu; as well as nine grandchildren, in-laws and
many relatives.

Funeral arrangements are yet to be announced as at the time of writing this report, 

The ‘Purple hibiscus’ author narrated that the death of her father left her broken.

“Because loved my father so much, so fiercely, so tenderly, I always
at the back of my mind feared this day. But he was in good health. I
thought we had time,” she had written.

“I thought it wasn’t yet time. I have come undone. I have screamed,
shouted, rolled on the floor, pounding things. I have shut down parts of
myself.

“We are broken, bereft, holding on to one another, planning a burial
in these COVID-scarred times. I’m stuck in the US, waiting. The Nigerian
airports are closed. Everything is confusing, bewildering.

“Sleep is the only respite. On waking, the enormity, the finality,
strikes – I will never see my father again. Never again. I crash and go
under. The urge to run and run, to hide from this.”

Meanwhile, Chimamanda lost her father, James Adichie in June 2020 to a brief illness.