Olori Atuwatse III, wife of the Olu of Warri Ogiame Atuwatse III, on Friday revealed that the most difficult thing she had ever done was to bury her father Captain Hosa Okunbo.
Okunbo died on August 7 at a hospital in London, United Kingdom. The 73-year-old had a long battle with cancer. He was buried in Benin on October 8.
Olori Atuwatse’s revelation comes exactly one week after her father’s remains were laid to earth. Sharing throwback photos of herself and dad, she wrote:
“Daddy O, It has been a week since we laid you to rest and despite how easy we made it look, it was the hardest thing I have ever done,” she wrote in an Instagram post. “It is so surreal to refer to you in the past tense, especially when it feels like I have become more aware of you than I have ever been.”
She said her father had foresight when he called her ‘Iye’ meaning ‘mother’.
“Who would have known that you were calling me forth when you called me “my Iye”? Who would have known that I would have to become not just your ‘Iye’, but, ‘Iye’ to my dearly beloved siblings as well as my people – the great Itsekiri land?” she wrote.
The queen said she would continue to uphold Okunbo’s teaching that “a good name is better than gold.”
According to her, despite all her father achieved his most significant accolades remain the lives he transformed.
“Our family is indeed blessed to have been a part of your journey, to have sat at your feet as your children learning from your ways,” she wrote.