Aurelien Boyer, the French husband of late Nigerian broadcaster Tosyn Bucknor who died on November 19th has just written a touching tribute to his late wife.
Boyer revealed that the the Service of Songs organized for Tosyn was an amazing outpour of genuine love honouring the impact, love, joy and happiness she created in all of us.
His tribute reads ;
I can say it at any time of the day, at any point in time, now. For you have changed days into nights and nights into days. You are irreplaceable. But you also made our lives sweet.? Wyfo, you gave me the happiest days of my life. 1 wedding, 2 weddings, 3 weddings, 4, and 1,722 days more. How would I summarize this in a lower number of words?
Labalaba mi, your pure heart saved mine when I thought it was already gone for love. And we’ve flown a première classe flight ever since then on your long and fragile wings. Irawo mi, you were a star to me. You were a Star to all. I remember seeing on one of your to-dos, titled ‘before I die’ and showing: ‘oscar, grammy, golden globe’.
You wanted to achieve something that only 37 people had achieved in the history. But guess what? You’ve achieved it in our hearts and deserved many more awards. You were way too unique for these awards anyway. Where would be the award for how funny you were? How cute you were? How creative you were?
BOML, you were a true beauty. ‘In and out’ would be a an understatement to describe your beauty.? Area Boss, I fell in love with you listening to your shows. I was a fan of yours: it helped me understand you. ‘What is your traffic situation? What’s the weather like in your area? What’s DISCO like in your area?’. Some simple questions that actually had a deep meaning. It meant you had love for people. It meant you always wanted to listen to people, genuinely cared for them, and were able to impact each and every human being you met.
Even my family, despite the language barrier. Punk, oh my, you were such an annoyingly lovely person. Who will tell me ‘don’t annoy, usbano’ now? Me, I want to annoy. Who’s going to tell me ‘pele se o gbo’, now? I don’t want to hear. Who am I going to pretend I listen to the loooong gists of? Ok, fine, I actually always enjoyed listening to you. Who will I call to get your attention as 5 of your phones are off and you won’t pick the last one?
My tribute shared during the Service of Songs for Tosyn
‘Con.tra.diction. You were one. On and off stage. Strong but fragile. Hesitant but determined. Confident but not confident. Explosive but simple. Sophisticated but natural. Beautiful but different. Small but tall (or at least 1cm taller than Funke). Leader but follower. Modern but conservative. Messy but organized. Hard working but laaaaazy. I could go on for days.
And although we all knew you, there was still so much we didn’t know about you and will never do. You were special in many ways and accepted the difference, to create something great out of it. You accepted me with my differences, my goods and bads. I learnt a lot from you and about me thanks to you. This will guide me all my life.? Now that you are no more on this planet, a lot of questions come to our minds and we don’t have all the answers. But I guess if we could #asktosyn , you would have answers available for us. And if don’t know the answers, why don’t we ask you?
And if we don’t know what to say, we’ll say like you: Peace, Love and Amala !And if we don’t know what to eat and don’t want to, we’ll eat like you: some gewd Amala, again !
And if we don’t know what to drink and don’t want to, we’ll drink like you: coca-cola.
And if we don’t know what to tell our friends, we’ll tell them Tosyn lived. Bigger than life, bolder than death.
And if we don’t know what to tell our kids, we’ll tell them this is just another Tosyn’s game.
And if we don’t know if we should shed our tears, we’ll let them go, for you will accept them in your ocean of love.
And if we don’t know what happened, we’ll remember that you had a great life, better than many.
And if we don’t know how to dance and don’t want to, well…ahem…let’s try not to see you as a role model on everything, ok? People used to wonder if you were the one writing for me. Well, I guess not. You were just such a great material to write about.
You were my wife, are my wife and will be, till my end. I’ve loved you, I love you, and will love you till my end. As you were saying in your song: binti layie, here today, gone tomorrow. Sun re o, wyfo.
