My partner’s mother, Cecilia Sonola, who has died aged 75, was one of the first generation of immigrants from Nigeria who made their way in the 1960s in Notting Hill, west London.
She was born Omoleye Akintola in Lagos, fourth of five children of Johnson Akintola, a civil servant, and his wife, Senobu Abate, and grew up in Ado Ekiti, in south-west Nigeria, where her father worked as a prison warder. She was educated at St Patrick’s school, Lagos Island, and learned English during her school years, but maintained her native language, Yoruba, all her life.
In 1962, she travelled to the UK with Oluremi Sonola, her husband to be, who was to study for accountancy qualifications in London; they married in 1966. She described her experiences in the early days: “It was in June and it was still cold. It was easy to get jobs then. Accommodation was very difficult to get – I said to my husband I wish I could ship a room over here from my daddy’s house. My husband was laughing at me and said you cannot go back now. I need your help. We lived in one large room with the cooker in one corner of the room. We shared the bathroom and the toilet with the other tenants in the house.”
Cecilia, as she became known (using her confirmation name), worked first as a clerk, then studied to become an auxiliary nurse and got a job in her local hospital, St Charles, as well as bringing up her two sons on her own when her husband returned to Nigeria to set up in business. She retrained to be a nursery teacher and worked in two local nurseries until her retirement in 1999.
Then she became an active member of the Pepper Pot Day Centre in Notting Hill. Her crowning moment came when she met the Queen during celebrations of the centre’s 25th anniversary in 2006. The Queen asked about one of the songs she had been greeted with, One More Step Along. Cecilia was proud to be able to reply that, as a schoolgirl of 17, she had been part of the welcoming committee singing the same song at the start of the Queen’s first official visit to Nigeria in 1956.
Cecilia had many friends of all ages and backgrounds. She was a member of Westbourne Grove Church for 40 years. Her faith in God, kindness, generosity and common sense meant that she was a much-loved, loyal friend, often taking on the role of surrogate mother/grandmother. She bore periods of illness with dignity, grace and self-discipline, always determined to go back to knitting, doing word searches and exercise.
She is survived by her husband, her sons, Olumuyiwa and Olakunmi, and two grandchildren, Kayode and Serena.
