So many things just went wrong since Dr Tosin Ajayi, the founder and medical director of First Foundation Medical Centre, Lagos., died.
By Tuesday, April 27, 2021 his wives, children and extended families will mark his first memorial.
He died on Monday April 27, 2020, at St. Nicholas Hospital, Lagos Island.
He was 75 years old.
A renowned cardiologist, healthcare technologist, entrepreneur, administrator, philanthropist and community developer, he was assumed to be married to former beauty queen, Helen Prest-Ajayi for 25 years.
With his vested interest in many multinational companies, his death must have brought the beauty queen more tears and sorrows.
First, as Dr Tosin Ajayi’s wife of 25 years, Helen Prest revealed how she was shabbily treated by her stepchildren and their mum after Ajayi passed on in April 2020.
According to Helen Prest-Ajayi, who had a daughter for the late wealthy physician, she had spent over 42 days nursing him while in his sick bed.
But she was repaid with an arrest, court cases and scuffles at the cemetery.
Ajayi’s funeral was fraught with unsavoury drama that left many friends, family members and well-wishers grappling with shock.
His burial took place after series of court hearings and reconciliatory meetings among the deceased’s first wife, Oluyemisi Ajayi, her five children, and Ajayi’s wife, Helen Prest.
More worrisome is the fact that Ajayi died intestate.
Surprised? This will pale into insignificance when juxtaposed with Helen Prest’s current dilemma.
To what might come as a shock to many people, Dr. Ajayi, with all the enormous financial wherewithal at his disposal, lived in a rented apartment during his lifetime.
Indeed, Ajayi was a very wealthy man, and he ran a thriving practice, and had many luxury and landed properties, scattered around the world. He was also a respected businessman with interests in many lucrative pies such as telecommunications (he once held the franchise of Siemens in Nigeria) and real estate among others.
But, Ajayi lived in a rented apartment in Ikoyi. The rent is reportedly estimated at N30 million per annum. When he was alive, that would have been chicken feed to him.
But now that he is no more, the tide has changed, and his widow, Helen Prest is said to be unnerved by the growing concerns that stark reality portends.
Sources disclosed that Helen Prest is greatly disturbed by the battles being waged against her by the Ajayi children. But more disturbing for her is the catalogue of challenges she is facing in raising the funds to renew the rent.
A source close to Helen Prest said the rent issue has been giving her sleepless nights. She is now torn between working harder or moving into a smaller and more affordable apartment. She is also concerned about how to raise her three daughters – Tiffany and Tosan Davies (from her previous marriage to Jimmy Davies), and Tomisin Ajayi, and maintain the “fairy princess” lifestyles that Ajayi treated them to.
Helen Prest, 61, a lawyer and a former beauty queen, was said to have met Ajayi twenty-five years ago, ten years after he had been separated from his first wife, Oluyemisi.
Ajayi and his wife, Oluyemisi, a retired Chief Nursing Officer with the Lagos State Government, were legally married, even though they were estranged as of the time of his death.
Helen Prest, a graduate of law from the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, also holds an LL.M from the Kings College, London. She got married to Dr. Ajayi after her first marriage to Jimmy Davies, a businessman, collapsed. Theirs was a whirlwind union that stood the test of time. Sadly, Ajayi’s death has now eclipsed the fairytale lifestyle that Helen Prest had been used to, virtually all her life.