I also thought to share this blog I did back in Feb 2017. It gives the full backstory of Sholly that has birthed all you will see that we do.

 

I’m glad I’m no longer the Salt that wrote that. The pain was too much. But I think it’s good for those meeting Sholly and I for the first time to know how this all began because it proves our point. God can bring good from incredible pain.

 

 

 

Sholly, as she was fondly called by most, was a young, beautiful, bright and talented English Teacher, Photographer and budding Filmmaker living in a little Polish town with her husband, Jakub Gaska. 

 

The 36 year old Nigerian had gone to Poland to study Architecture and Interior Design at the Cracow University of Technology in Krakow, Poland in 2000. On graduation, she decided to make Poland her home. In 2010, she married Jakub and all seemed well with her until December 28, 2016 when her older sister, Bola ‘Salt Essien-Nelson received a phone call from Jakub (Kuba) that ‘there had been an accident; Sholly had fallen unconscious and had died’. The call was disconnected. When Kuba called back, the story appears to have changed as he now told Bola that Sholly had fallen sick on Dec 27 and had been taken to the hospital where she eventually passed on at 3a.m on Dec 28, 2016. How could this be? Sholly had just spoken to her sister on Dec 24 and she was not sick. They chatted via Facebook on Dec 26 and 27 and still no indication that Sholly would be dead on the 28th.

 

The Adefolalu family was thrown into shock. Sholly’s sister, a totally distraught Salt and her husband, Henry began to make plans to travel to Poland to join the Gaska family to pay their last respects to their sister and wife. Then comes the second bombshell. Kuba informs them that Sholly had asked to be cremated. Unable to believe such a claim (as it is not in the Nigerian culture to be cremated) but not wanting to create unnecessary friction in this already sad situation, the family agreed but asked that he wait for Henry and Bola to get to Poland. Third bombshell. Kuba informed them that he would be unable to wait for them to process their visas which would take ten working days. His plan was to have the cremation done on January 2, 2017; just five days after his wife’s death. 

 

 

Pleas from his wife’s family and Sholly’s friends in Poland could not sway him. An official from the Nigerian Embassy in Poland also spoke to him asking him to wait. Jakub refused. His last words on the matter were that ‘the cremation will go ahead as planned and there is nothing anyone can do about it’. Now, Salt and her family became suspicious. 

 

These and many more are the questions the Adefolalu family is asking the Nigerian and Polish Authorities to help it answer.  Petitions have been written and sent to both Presidents and other top government officials of both countries. There is also an online change.org petition addressed to the Mayor of Krakow and the Polish Ambassador in Nigeria. 

 

It is the hope of the family that the Nigerian Government will put pressure on the Polish Police and Prosecutor’s office to get to the bottom of this sad mystery. Losing a loved one is tough enough but finding peace and closure is that much more difficult when questions likes the ones above go unanswered. 

 

 

(I really cannot afford to stand around waiting for CNN’s approval. If it eventually approves, I shall take this post down and use their link. Till then, I am sharing because this lifts out most of the questions that are giving me insomnia. I am in some mad limbo where I cannot really mourn properly and begin to move on because I am so busy advocating. If I don’t do this, who will? I am her mother. It is my duty. Plus, I must. For my family. For my Peace.

 

Anyway, I know God is working. We will soon get answers. Will we be happy with them? That is another question and we shall cross that bridge when we get there. For now, in the words of Betty Abah, ‘we soldier on’).