My letter of condolence to Nana Opoku Kwarteng (father of Ebony Reigns)

Dear Sir,

Please accept my deepest condolence to you on this collective loss of ours that is very personal to you. I have taken time to write to you for the following four reasons.

Firstly, a bosom friend once advised me, as a man, to pray against some experiences in my life. One of them, he said, was never to have the experience of burying my own child. It is a truly painful experience and I cannot even begin to imagine the pain that this has caused you. It is for this reason that I write to console you.

Also, another friend of mine (and I have many such wise friends) said to me that a father’s love for the son comes from the mind; but his love for a daughter proceeds from the heart.

I have heard about the close relationship you kept with your daughter, and how much you loved and defended her. I can only imagine how much your heart is aching. This is the reason why I sympathize with you.

The other reason you have my sympathies is the nature of the death. While it may be true that every death is a death, some are more distressing than others. When I saw an image of the vehicle your daughter was travelling in after the accident, I was trembling. A lot of questions ran through my mind.

I do not have the courage and the strength to repeat those questions here. No one wishes a painful death for another person. How much more his own child who is also a daughter that he loves?

Finally, there is no question about how talented your Ebony was. Even in this very short career, she still remains one of the best Ghana music has seen and will be remembered for a long time. It was one hit song after the other and I can say without any fear of contradiction that she died at a time when she was reigning over Ghana music.

Every father feels proud about their children who have such great talents and much more when it is a female child. I feel that we had not seen her best yet, because she was still largely a raw talent. That is why I say your loss is our collective loss and we all mourn with you.

Sir, I pray that God gives you the strength to pull through this tragedy together with her mother and siblings.

Yours in Mourning,

A. A. JONGTEY

jongtey@yahoo.com