Conrad Bobo Atabong

Dear Kate and Constance,

Your hurt will slowly subside but the fond memories of your brother will linger in your hearts forever. Ashia....... It is well. 

Dear Kate, Constance and the Atabong family:
Please do accept my sincere sympathy at this time of your great loss. Constance, I have a twin brother and I can only imagine!! Such a bitter pill to swallow, but may our good Lord give you all the courage to bear the loss of your brother.
Shalom shalom!

Hang on to the obviously memorable times. You remain in our thoughts and prayers. 

"O Death, where is your sting? O Hades, where is your victory?" This world is truly not our home, we all are just going to pass through. It's so painful when a young man at his prime just vanishes, but one thing I'm reassured is the testimony of His Faith, God knows best. Where will you and I be when we are no more-- with the Lord or....think about this! Bobo your family and loved ones will truly miss you. May God heal the wound and pain in their hearts in due time. Ashia my Limbe Pep's our hearts are all sore. We'll keep the family in prayer for God to comfort and watch over them during such very difficult times! Adieu!

Death leaves a heartache no one can heal... Bobo you`ll always remain in our hearts. Though too young to die, your soul will rest in perfect peace!
Me and your man Tembi, we will miss you terribly.... Remember our meetings when i was in pays!
Waoooo i still can't beleive you've left us. Farewell my brother!  Death is cruel!

Nkem, though you may have taken your time in coming along as we grew up, you made us all proud by rising to take your father's place as head of the family, a job you have done so well. How could we ever have done what we have done if you were not there to hold the house? Your leaving so early was a shock to us all but our faith tells us not to worry for you are gone home to meet your Father. Nkem, you did well in the short time you were here. Go in peace and find the light of Christ.

Michael Fondungallah, Esq.
Minnesota

Bobo RIP. we gonna miss you a lot  but you will always stay in our hearts,  
  your jokes, and simplycity. May God Be with the Atabongs family at this difficult time.  
  Bepather Mercy nee Ekoko 

“Bobo” became not just a sobriquet but the name by which we (your dear ones) and the wider world came to know and call you. But, as we know, you entered this world as a twin. And we named you Nchonganyi. At baptism, we christened you Conrad. When we celebrated the passing of our grandmother, Emeh Along, Fualebialem crowned you Nkematabong, after your father, who would have been our Patriarch today had he not gone so soon.

Today, we are faced with the hard reality of talking about you in the past tense. But then, we must face reality, accept the fact, and join some of those who have known similar situations to seek strength. And so, as Edna St. Vincent Millay reminds:

“Where you used to be, there is a hole in the world, which I (we) find myself (ourselves) constantly walking around in the daytime, and falling in at night. I (we) miss you like hell.”

Yes, we miss you so very, very much…indeed. We started missing you as soon as the news first broke on that fateful January 26.

To know that you are no longer here with us is unbelievable, yet true. And losing you hurts; knowing that you were so young hurts even more; and knowing that you have gone so soon, without a single word of goodbye, is simply unbearable. That is why we must now find comfort both from Scripture and from those wise ones that gleaned strength and the courage from their own situations to talk or write about moments like the one we find ourselves in today. That is why your untimely, sudden departure teaches us (to paraphrase Jorge Luis Borges) who among other things invited us “to build all our roads on today because tomorrow’s ground is too uncertain for plans, and futures have a way of falling down in mid-flight.”

Go well then son, for here we stand with an immeasurable feeling of emptiness…a void your departure has created…a chasm no amount of consoling can bridge. The Lord gave you to us; He alone knows why He has taken you away so soon. Bring our salutations to Emeh Along your paternal grandmother and Mama Ndiambreh, your maternal grandmother; tell your dad, (our torch bearer) that the family misses him, always. And assure them that we are strong in the knowledge that they are looking through the holes in the floor of Heaven at us…pouring blessings on us, guiding our every step…watching over us.

Your Uncle (Barna) Asonglefac Nkemleke.