* How he rocked and rolled at Tinubu’s party.
About three months after the Grim Reaper visited the home of Mutiu Sunmonu, chairman of construction giant, Julius Berger, and left with his beloved wife, Funke, he has gone through the numbing gamut of grief; denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance.
Funke died in April after a protracted battle with cancer. If money were enough, he could have mustered the whole world to save her and fulfil his vows that they would grow grey together but death had other tragic plans.
She was buried at the elitist Vaults and Gardens in Ikoyi in the presence of friends and family members and prominent Nigerians. Of course, it was hard for him, like it would for anyone else who loses a loved one especially one of the hue of the adorable Funke, to accept that they would never see again or look into the loving eyes of each other as they have for the past almost three decades.
The anger that he was helpless as his beloved suffered untold agony in her twilight days and all his wealth couldn’t salvage her dovetailed into understandable depression. But time heals all wounds. Gradually, the former MD of Shell has come to accept the reality of his wife’s death as the permanent reality.
While the cold, lonely nights subsist, Sunmonu’s days are becoming interspersed with moments, no matter how brief, when he gives in to some form of gaiety. Last Monday, when Wale Tinubu, Group CEO of OANDO marked his 50th birthday, Sunmonu was one of the guests. Though his brows were still furrowed in sorrow, he did well to mask it by immersing himself in the revelry of the moment. He had fun in moderation, enjoying the company of fellow billionaire friends who did the little they could to help him temporarily forget his grief.
