There was a sombre silence in the Ezenwa household where Ugo had come back to live with his mother while Ezinne and Peter lived in their respective homes with their partners. A kind that pierced right through the person observing it. Ugo was gone – and it had happened just a stone’s throw away from mama’s reach. She could have prevented it, you know. If only life had gifted her the supernatural instincts that every mother wishes she had just to keep her womb’s fruit in the safety of her gaze. Ugo’s internal battles had piled up and drowned him, and now he’s really gone.

The genesis

Ugo took a hard ego knock when he couldn’t even land a ‘bencher’s’ position back when he was trying to restart his football career in London. When he opted to return to Lagos, the residue of his burnt-up career couldn’t help him land a decent job in Lagos. Everyone had forgotten about his days of glory. This is when things started to really spiral for the former superstar.

... and then Sylvia happened 

Though the two didn’t hit it off the first time, Ugo and Sylvia quickly became each other’s soft, landing place and the effects of their relationship rubbed off on their respective careers. Ugo was more cognizant of his role as the elder son, and Sylvia dropped the ‘cold-hearted’ act at work and became more approachable. Their emotions for each other housed their collective past traumas and with this in mind, they created a safe space for themselves. The two had their fair share of loss, including their unborn baby.

When Ugo was ready to really settle down for the first time in his life, Sylvias walked out on him and never looked back. On the day that was meant to be the happiest of his life, Ugo faced a humiliation of great magnitude – a kind that would probably take him a lifetime to get over.

Picking up the pieces

After crying himself to sleep for countless nights, Ugo finally decided to snap out of it. After all, if Sylvia was out there living her best life, what good was punishing himself going to bring, right? Therapy really seemed like a good idea. Ugo finally found a place of release and a way to consolidate everything he’d been feeling. Slowly, he emptied himself of all the hurt and disappointment and opened himself up to new possibilities. A new love, maybe.

Wendy’s unsolicited love  

Ugo and Wendy’s meeting was an eventuality of Mama’s meddling. She’d been preaching healing and moving on since Sylvia up and left, and Wendy seemed like the right fit for Ugo. In the thick of their relationship, Wendy seemed to have been livingly apologetically and constantly trying to make up for what the past had done to Ugo. She overcompensated, while Ugo couldn’t spare a single muscle to love himself enough to recognise how good he had it with her. Not until Wendy decided to throw in the towel and live her life. Ugo’s decision to come back knocking was met with kind resistance, but instead of looking at it from various logical angles, Ugo took the rejection and became hostile. The unpleasant end of something potentially beautiful.

After pouring his heart out and defining his existence in the lowliest and sad ways during his therapy session, Ugo took his life and left his loved ones wondering what they did wrong. A sad end indeed.

In loving memory of Ugo Ezenwa. A son, a brother, a friend!



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