See How Edwin Igbokwe kept his late wife’s corpse in a room for three months hoping she would wake up (Photo)

The late singer’s husband in an interview
with PUNCH , opened up on his grief and
denial following the death of his wife,
Christy Essien Igbokwe, three years ago.
He further revealed how he wooed and
married her, the health challenges she
encountered before her death, the many
visions prophets saw concerning them and
why he remarried.
Read his touching but long narration below:
“Thirty five years ago, I married my soul
mate and lifetime partner. She was
Nigeria’s lady of songs, the late Christy
Essien Igbokwe. I was a 26-year-old
executive at The Punch while she was a
19-year-old songstress and actress that
mesmerised Nigeria’s entertainment and
theatre scenes with her young, affable
innocence. Through those years, we
celebrated togetherness and profound
love, a love I felt the first time I blessed
my eyes on her; a love that grew
stronger each sunrise, until 9a.m, June
30, 2011. With each day’s sunset, our
love blossomed, like flowers bloomed in
spring. We stayed as one through the
challenges of life. There were years of
aches and pains, tears of joy and
electrifying laughter. We stayed together
and survived the rough and tumbles of
life. We shared everything until it was
time for her to go. She lived half a
century.
“As I walked down Jebose Boulevard, I
tried to accept and appreciate all that
life privileged after her eternal
transition. It is over three years since
Christy died. The denials, the
depressions, forward from her death are
paths to healing. I missed and mourned
her tenderly. Time and support from
friends and family were therapies to a
second chance at life, living and loving.
No one understands the discomfort and
trauma of losing a dear family member
such as your siblings, your parents or
wife, a dearest lifetime partner; (the
cherished one you swore before God and
the people to love till death do us part),
until it happened to them: We are never
the same when we lose those that we
loved and admired. A part of us leaves
with them. Every one of us would come
to that place in our lifetime; what
matters is how we handled our different
circumstances and who would be there
to comfort us as we grieved. The
mourning season may never end. I can
imagine days of guilt, days of tear drops
on the pillows and silent wails for losing
my dearest wife. The pain is part of
passionate memories, of a privileged,
shared moment in our lives. These
walks with you, Jebose, ignited
emotional past pains of losing my late
wife and a closure of tragic and
traumatic chapters of my life.
Christy was special and spectacular. She
was a prophet. She revealed when she
would die to the children and by
extension, to me: she revealed to us that
she had only half a century in this
‘wicked world;’ she told me that when
death came, it would be middle of the
year. She shared with close friends and
members of the family, her end time. I
always dismissed her because I was not
ready to lose her. She told our children
that she would live for 50 years and that
any single day thereafter, they should
be thanking God. She died June 30, 2011
at age 50.
During one of our affectionate
conversations, she told me she would be
sick for three days before her death. She
said she would exit without burden to
anyone or herself. I didn’t believe, until
it happened: four days before her death,
she complained of stomach ache. We
went to the hospital for scanning and
treatment: the hospital placed her on
overnight admission and began
treatment, but she wanted to go home.
Her desire to go home was bolstered by
hospital’s electric power interruption.
The hospital’s generator was also
broken down. She said rather weakly,
that she wanted to go home since the
hospital had no electricity. I honoured
her request. We left the hospital for our
home. Halfway into our street, the
doctor called and informed me that the
generator suddenly activated,
surprisingly nothing was wrong with it,
we could return to continue treatment;
we were almost home, my wife said she
didn’t want to go bac