A noble woman goes home: Tribute to Isabella Victoria Imbeah
There seems to be a death of many noble people in town. Thus, when one goes home, there is not only a profound void, but also piercing pain.
Advertisement
As church goers strolled to church one fine Sunday morning, Isabella quietly breezed into the world. It was July 18, 1926. The sweet spirit of the modest lady whose life we celebrate now would later touch and inspire many lives in several ways.
I have fond memories of my mum, Mrs Isabella Victoria Imbeah. Throughout her life, she thought me very useful lessons in kindness, selflessness, courage, truthfulness and generosity.
At an early age, she let me go to her sister; my other mum, the late Sarah Mugabe – to a land then known as Rhodesia. It was a defining moment in my life. It was at a time Sarah had lost her only child then, Nhamo and her husband, Robert Mugabe, was in jail because of his resistance to colonial rule in the then Rhodesia.
My mum once related to me: “Sarah was deeply saddened by the loss of her son. In those difficult times, her companion was you. She was usually with you and she liked you so much. Once we had a chat and I noticed that with regard to the issue of having children she could call her own, she was very sad so I decided to offer her one of my children to keep her company. I asked her to choose from among my children and she chose you. It was natural because she spent so much time with you when she visited home because you were then at home. She treated you very well.”
Philosophy about life
We called our mum Memaa. While it sounded simple, it had deep philosophical roots. She was in true sense a mother – one clothed in a sweet spirit of modesty…an endearing disposition of courage and love.
Her philosophy about life was aptly captured in the words: “Nyame yɛ dƆ, Nyame ye sunsum,” literally meaning “God is love, God is Spirit”. To her, life had no meaning without an unconditional expression of love and the bold denial of earthly pleasures for spiritual effervescence as inspired by the Holy Spirit. This philosophy would serve as light on her path through the glorious and challenging times in her life.
Education
Life began for little Isabella at European Town in Sekondi, where she was born. As the first child of her parents: Robert Brown Hayfron and Mavis Patricia Renner Hayfron, she was the proverbial “ground breaker”; breaking a trail for her younger siblings. She faced the challenge with hope, sacrifice, generosity and courage.
Other Trending Stories
As a little girl, she would soon be carried along by her parents to a new destination, Aburi; her dad had secured a new job at the Agric Botanical Gardens. In Aburi she started school at the Presbyterian Primary School and there her promise and radiance began to show. “My teacher liked me very much. She praised me for my eloquence and said I was a pretty girl,” she once related. In Aburi, her father gave birth to two of her siblings: Sarah and Esther.
Their stay in Aburi ended quite abruptly following the death of her grandfather who had been on a sojourn abroad. The family had to relocate to Sekondi and in Sekondi, Isabella continued her education at the Methodist Primary School. Eventually, she embarked on another adventure in Cape Coast, moving to stay with an auntie there. At Cape Coast, she enrolled at St Monica’s where she completed Standard Seven.
Her work
On completion of Standard Seven, Isabella was faced with a dicey situation. There were prospects ahead of her and while keen to develop herself academically, she was also faced with the choice of helping raise her younger siblings, Jane, Sarah and Esther. At such an early age, Isabella displayed a high level of maturity and faced that challenge with selflessness.
She offered to sacrifice for her younger siblings to also get a head start in life. Thus, while there was the prospect of pursuing education in law, she decided to join her mother in her sewing business to help raise money for the upkeep and education of her younger siblings.
“We were the best in Sekondi,” she once stated of her mum’s sewing business. “After sewing for some time, an Uncle of mine, Manford Gaisie, implored me to change jobs. He took me to Telephone Exchange in Sekondi and for nine years I worked there”.
At Telephone Exchange, Isabella worked hard to help cater for her siblings, notably Sarah and Esther, sending her parents monthly stipends to cater for their education at Achimota School. Sally (Sarah) later became a Home Economist and the First Lady of Zimbabwe. Esther became a German trained medical doctor. She worked as the Deputy Director of the Ghana Medical Service in charge of Maternal & Child Health and later World Bank Representative on Health at its office in Nigeria.
The sacrifice Isabella made was instrumental in nurturing these two very eminent personalities who touched their generation in special ways. Her two brothers, Yooku and Paa Nii, died in their prime ages.
Today, Saturday, September 19, 2015, Mrs Isabella Victoria Imbeah a.k.a. Ebusuapanyin Esi Akyer Mansa Fynnbaa, goes home. The final funeral rites will be held at the Presbyterian Church of Ghana (Ebenezer Congregation) Sekondi, Maxwell Road.
She was of noble personality and her selflessness and kind-heartedness have left worthy footprints in the sands of time.