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We often time wonder about the fickleness that comes with life, and then begin to question the reality of living, however, life is not just about now, but about our realities when we are no more.
This is not a publication, to mourn the untimely exit of a woman, whom most have described “as an angel too good for the world”. It is a piece to celebrate her legacy. The former Beauty Queen was the wife of Pastor Ituah Ighodalo and mother to two children, yet spreads her tenets of love to as many as she could.
Before her demise in the early hours of June 14, 2020, her family stated that she had been traveling around the country to build Isolation centers for Corona Virus patients in Nigeria, up until she caved into the cold hands of death in Port Harcourt.
Aside from being a former beauty Queen, Ibidun who died at the age of 39, could be described as an achiever being one of the leading brands in event planning. Her Midas touch lit up the street of Lagos at Christmas every year.
However, she never stayed silent about her struggles in trying to approach motherhood -particularly, when fertility and IVF is concerned. Her friend and celebrity photographer TY Bello called her ‘a giver’ and had leaked a conversation, which perhaps was the last between them, where she had stated that for her 40th birthday, all she wanted to do was to help 40 expecting families get children.
Ibidun Ituah-Ighodalo was the founder of the famous Elizabeth R event management company, but also had a foundation in Lagos Nigeria. The Ibidun Ituah-Ighodalo Foundation leads conversations around fertility and parenting. The mission of the Non-profit organization is to ensure that all families enjoy the joy of parenting irrespective of their financial or social status.
She never was shy about her challenges with infertility – which spanned 11 years of waiting and 11-failed IVFs and her adoption of her beautiful daughter and son. Her foundation was something she described to have been born out of her pain.
In an interview, she once said, “I felt life. I felt like, this is why I was born. And the meaning of my name is Ibi dunni, “sweet to give birth”, “sweet to have” and for the first time it was as though my life was playing in front of me.”
In her moments of expecting and she stated that she stopped living and was merely existing because the process of waiting and wanting to have your own child was an emotional roller coast. Hence, the reason why she decided to hold the hands of women and men like her struggling to have kids, spiritually, emotionally, and financially.
The foundation collaborates with highly reputable fertility clinics in Nigeria and with other donors to help couples with the financial and material support they require during their fertility treatments. Besides, her Non-profit organization provides the necessary psychological and spiritual support families require to deal with the pressures they face along their journey to conception.
In her life and time, Ibidun Ituah-Ighodalo not only provided IVF supports for families who were waiting, but also helped to enlighten families about other possible challenges and restrictions to childbirth on the part of both sexes — and other possible options that can be embraced. We find this hard to say, but rest in power, this calm storm who rocked the face of the earth, touching lives and changing stories.
