TRIBUTE OF DADDY NZE EZINNA JACOB ODOEME @ 80

TRIBUTE OF NDI MUO OZI NKE CHUKWU DULANU GI, DADDY NZE EZINNA JACOB ODOEME @ 80 BY REV FR PAUL IKECHUKWU OGUJIOFFOR (ROMA)

The psalmist fixes the course of the human life at 80 years. Seventy years is the span of our days, or eighty if we are strong. And most of these are toil and pain. They pass swiftly and we are gone Ps.90:10. Daddy, you enjoyed the biblical life span and even the jubilee celebrations therein because by faith your matrimonial jubilee was 20^th October and on 18^th August you answered the eternal yes of faithfulness as to be saying GLORIA IN EXCELSIS DEO as you sang all these years throughout your life which you spent more than 50 years at Onitsha, before you retired and came home at OGWAHIA-ACHARA UTURU at 70. We are very happy that you are our father and gave us the training that is rooted in God and with a very strong magnetic character that pulls very many people to our family for the greater glory of GOD. This is because you tried to held tenaciously the meaning of your name JACOB and applied it to your daily life which very many people shared from your philanthropy. From the Latin Iacobus, which was from the Greek Ιακωβος (Iakobos), which was from the Hebrew name יַעֲקֹב (Ya'aqov). In the Old Testament, Jacob (later called Israel) is the son of Isaac and Rebecca and the father of the twelve founders of the twelve tribes of Israel. He was born holding his twin brother Esau’s heel, and his name is explained as meaning holder of the heel or supplanter. It is also derived from a hypothetical name like יַעֲקֹבְאֵל (Ya'aqov'el) meaning may God protect. Daddy, you were truly a father to very many people not just socially but spiritually and morally too and through you God protected many people from harm. You were a philanthropist, a lover of all and above all highly spiritual and religious which was consequent of your ascetic and disciplinary life. This virtue yielded much fruit in our family and extended to other families and beyond Uturu. The moral values you inculcated in us is today a credit to the world in general seen in the good works of your priest son Rev Fr Dr Paul Chinemerem Odoeme and other brothers and sisters. Special mention is the moral value and dignity of virginity preservation which you with mummy inculcated in our daughters that were been testified by our in-laws after marriage in the Church. Daddy, with the five letters of your name, we remember with great joy the five most important biblical passages talking about the age or number 80 which you completed, thus:

J - The Revelation of John speaks about the great hailstones weighing near 80 pounds which fell from the sky on the people. (Rv 16,21)

A - The prophet Daniel was 80 years old at the time of the banquet given by Belshazzar, where he had to interpret the prophecy written on the wall of the royal palace. (Dn 5,1)

C - Age of Moses when he spoke to Pharaoh. (Ex 7,7)

O - After that Israelites had conquered peoples of Moab, the country of Israel had peace for 80 years. (Jg 3,30)

B - Eighty priests accompanied by Azariah, confronting the king Uzziah. (2 Ch 26,17).

Behold, as we bid you farewell many priests, religious men and women and lay faithful are here to bear witness of your welcome home to eternity. Requiescat in pace daddy.