Dzigbɔrdi you will always remain in my thought. We lost Dad, then Linda and now you. May God grant you eternal rest in His bosom till we meet again in Paradise. Tɔr wa gamɔr.
You were always a phone call away, ready to share your time and energy with me and listen to me ramble about what now in retrospect were trivial and inane details of everyday life.
You would always open up your home to me whenever I came to Ghana and indulge me when I was jet-lagged with late night talks on life.
I will miss your boundless enthusiasm, I will miss commiserating with you on work projects, finding things we have in common to laugh about, your wit and your sense of humor, your laugh, your perseverance, your hope, and your generosity.
You made an impact in so many lives and including mine and your loss is a new dent in my heart I will have to learn to live with.
Your absence will be sorely felt and I will carry your memory with me in all my days.
I love you and miss you Franklin.
Big brother you may be gone from our sight, but never from our hearts. You had a presence and energy that could light up any room. Your warmth and empathy you showcased to me was a lifetime of brotherly love I’ll never forget.
I will always remember the amazing stories of your life that you shared with me. I will miss the great advices you gave me. When I go through my journey in life, I’ll always think back to your wisdom and guidance. Your strength to withstand physical trials has made me see the beauty in everyday life. May your soul find its place in the universe.
Rest In Peace Brother.
My dear Brother now that you are gone, You’re no longer here to share The bond we had together –A bond of love and care.
Yet, somehow something tells me You are watching over me.
I miss you so very much. I’ll miss the random phone calls, pictures and funny memes we shared through conversations.
Your actions were always kind. A generous person, a friend and a brother to many. We’ll all miss you very much!
Rest In Peace.
Longest time since I last saw you. May the Lord be with you
You always loved
You always cared
You always encouraged
You always checked on others
You would insist the right thing be done and be done the right way
You would refer to us as daughters and not nieces. You were simply an amazing person
You held on and fought until your last breath.
Rest well Uncle
Rest well Dad.
Forever in our hearts.
You conquered illness your on way. Just remember the smiles on your face the first time we visit. The positive spirit and positive aura around you gave us more hope too. Franklin you fought a good fight. Bishop Festus and all His Yeboah Asuamah family bid you farewell.
Rest well in the bosom of your maker
Franko Nero, rest well Bro. 🙏🏿
A limb has fallen from the family tree I keep hearing a voice that says,
“Grieve not for me.”
Remember the best times, the laughter, the song. The good life I lived while I was strong.
Continue my heritage, I’m counting on you.
Keep smiling and surely the sun will shine through. My mind is at ease, my soul is at rest.
Remembering all, how I truly was blessed.
Continue traditions no matter how small.
Go on with your life, don’t worry about falls.
I miss you already, so keep up your chin.
Until the day come we’re together again.
******************************
My dearest friend, thank you for all you have been, you have done and you have honoured.
You promised me that one day we’ll be in your village under a big shaded tree, doing what we have always done so well, be true to each other and have our heart to heart talks.
Well…. I am here now, with you my friend, I have not forgotten you. I miss you very much, I will keep my chin until the day comes that we are together again.
Thank you for choosing me to be your friend!
Yours Sincerely,
Ooh Frankie, words cannot comprehend my shock and pain when I heard of your passing. You run a great race, fought a good fight and above all were a great dad, a genuinely nice person and a beloved friend. May you rest eternally in peace in your creator’s arms and may your soul find everlasting peace. Rest in peace bro. 🙏🏾🙏🏾🙏🏾🙏🏾
Franklin,
We were in the same classes together in Association but lost touch over the years. It was a shock to read about your passing but hope you’re in a good place.
Death is an ending for us all but we can never be prepared, and there is always a sense of disbelief. I hope you had a good life filled with laughter, and have left immeasurable memories for your loved ones.
Hope you were able to achieve all you set out to do and loved every minute of it. You’re in a safe place I hope , and remembering all the memories and people you touched.
I wish you well my old friend, and hope you’re at peace.
Mr. Kwawu (that is what us male cousins all call each other when we meet),
How Be? I may not get to say that to you for a while but I know the answer to that question now, you dey fine!
Growing up with dynamic duo of Franklin and Linda as cousins was a blessing. Your calm and polite nature served as a role model to a rambunctious and talkative kid like me. I know I was saved some tougher times at Achimota because I was Franklin & Linda Kwawu’s “small cousin”. Many struggled to believe we were related. 😂 As teenagers, I got to benefit from the respect and credibility you both had with your peers. In your own way, you were both protector, hero and friend.
Franklin, you have been a calming and thoughtful voice in my ear for nearly 50 years, from childhood through to adulthood. Our relationship covered times from Cantomenets to Achimota to Poughkeepsie, NY to North Carolina and all the many places you and I got to sit and discuss the challenges and realities of childhood, teenage life, adulthood, marriage and parenthood. You were always real and unapologetic. Your words were steeped in knowledge and experience. And of course, the smile and dimples were a salve when tough messages were shared. 😊
There is so much more I can say but, the words will not represent how much you are loved and will be missed by me and the family. I want to say you are in a place where the pain is minimized but my selfishness of having to not get to talk to you gets in the way. So, I will end by saying, “Ga mø” (safe journey). Cannot wait to talk to you again!
Your cousin,
I really didn’t want to start this with the normal cliché messages.
I have read to many of those over the years. They are never easy.
Franklin and I have had intertwined lives for decades. Almost everywhere Franklin went, I was there at one time or another, visiting, hanging out or learning from him. Poughkeepsie New York, Connecticut, Washington DC, London, North Carolina, Toronto, Atlanta, Cuba, Ghana and many more. He was a great Friend and a better brother. We had the best of times, the best laughs, the best experiences, ohhh I have stories for months. We had the best time growing up together until I ran to another side of the world, but that didn’t stop us from meeting up, living together or visiting each other.
Franklin made it easy as he always reached out, regardless of where he was in the world. I appreciated that. Franklin, knows how I felt about him. I said it numerous times over the years. Especially on my trips to visit him in Cuba. We both loved that place. It felt like Paradise.
As the memories flash back, Franklin’s passing is just hitting me.
Sorry, but I will unfortunately end here with the memories I have.
Please cherish your memories especially those of our living loved ones. Hold them tight often.
Thanks.
The news of your passing is so surreal. I am still in denial that I will not receive a text or voice message when I send you random text messages.
That I will not get to talk for hours with you catching up on childhood memories and jokes.
Franklin, you were the glue that kept the cousins and families together.
You were ever friendly, approachable and knew every extended family member and family friends.
In spite of your own challenges, you always showed strength, resilience and kept rising above the challenges.
Your strength and positive attitude was an encouragement to all.
There are many questions we will not get answered as to why you were taken from us so soon.
We are comforted that you are in the arms of God.
Rest well my brother till we meet again.
“Let not your hearts be troubled; believe in God, believe also in me. In my father’s house are many rooms; if it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And when I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am, you may be also. John 14:1-3
Even though you are gone, your love will always be here to stay.
You touched many hearts with so many things and God knew you were the one to be saved, He took you home to get some rest, though we loved you best.
Our hearts are filled with so much pain, but God loved you more. At this time, we must let go.
Rest well dear cousin in peace.
Your memories will forever live through.
Franklin was such a dear soul from when we met in Form 1. Even though we were in different houses and forms, our friendship grew right through our school years until we reconnected in the UK and then in Ghana. I became a friend of the family and loved the fighting spirit Franklin exhibited following both episodes he suffered in his latter years. Always a part if our group, he enjoyed participating in our year group banter and had his own groupies who were always asking after him!
I was happy that he at least fulfilled his final desire to come back home when he did as he was home sick.
Franklin… Rest peacefully in the Lords bosom. We all miss you and by God’s grace we will meet again
You are gone, but you will live on in the hearts of your loved ones.
Rest Well, Handsome Man
I am not sure where to start or what to say in paying tribute to a friend who was more than a brother because I am still struggling to believe that Franklin, my “earthly twin”, is no more. I know he is gone – because I was there when his mighty heart stopped beating but I feel his presence everyday and the many, many memories run like a looped video in my head. Franklin, my brother is gone and this was not the plan. Even as young lads, we had talked about how we would grow old and spend our dotage swapping stories and regaling the next generation with our amazing, shared experiences. But now I am left with only my side of the stories to tell, and it will not be the same without my wingman there to enrich their telling.
Ours was a deep and fulfilling bond spanning 44 years. Our journey began when in 1978 our mutual childhood friend, Lewis Atsyor brought our paths together. Lewis’ mother was friends to both our Mums albeit independently of each of them. Not too long after Franklin returned to Ghana from the US, Lewis’ Mum thought that it would be good to bring the three of us, all roughly the same age, together. In an interesting twist of serendipity, our parents’ government bungalows were on adjacent streets that converged at Cantonments Roundabout (at the Togo Embassy), he on Fourth Circular Road and I on Cantonments Road. Even though he had a quirky accent which I now realize was the result of an attempt to supress the Yankee twang which he had come back with, we very quickly became inseparable. This development caused tension with the other area boys who felt that this intruder was pulling our gang apart. It did not take long however, for Franklin to endear himself to all with his happy smile and warm personality. The fact that he had some of the coolest toys we had seen in our lives certainly helped. We all had bikes, but Franklin’s was one of those American low rider types with raked handlebars. On top of which he had a skateboard, a basketball, a metal catapult (not the wooden one we knew) and to top it all, he had a remote-controlled model plane that run on petrol! With the Common Entrance exams behind us, it was an intensely enjoyable long vac of cutting through the thornbush hedges which separated the bungalows in the area as we visited, hung out, played and enjoyed Franklin’s tales about life in the US.
I do not recall any discussions about which secondary schools we had selected but we did not find out that we had both secured places in Achimota School until about a week into “nino” life there. Of course, we were ecstatic to find that we were in the same school although he was in Gyamfi House whilst I was in Aggrey House. We were so busy making new friends and embracing the new experiences of boarding school life that we only caught up occasionally in that first year. He loved being a Gyamfi House boy and his natural leadership and sociable nature ensured that he was at the heart of Gyamfi House life. He found new friends and cherished them for the rest of his life.
Our friendship continued to grow during school vacations, and we created so many memories together. In our third year in Achimota, our clique expanded to three as Philip (Djabanor) completed what came to be called by our parents, and much to our embarrassment, the three musketeers. We were inseparable and got up to all kinds of interesting adventures and scrapes over the next few years. Onero, as we had begun to call him, was really the glue that held us together. He was our de-facto leader, always coming up with a plan. He was definitely the fearless one – he would come up with these hair-brained adventures and proceed to convince us that they were worth trying although we all agreed that they were patently unwise. We survived those years and went on to Sixth form with memories and experiences that we never stopped cherishing.
Again, by some strange coincidence, Franklin and I ended up in PRESEC. It had always been assumed that we would be coming back to Motown and so imagine my surprise when having switched my choice to PRESEC at the last minute, I found my main man had also done the same. A whole new chapter began for us, the only two Motown-ers who had “dared” to apply to PRESEC. Let us just say the transition into this all-male environment was an interesting one. Franklin as usual made the transition easily, settling into Labone House where we both were and again, his easy charm and generous nature helped both of us build strong friendships. We shared a seniors’ room with Arnold Odonkor (whom we christened Opoku Ratata), Divine Agbenyeke (aka Joe Cool) and Albert Darkwa (Futi). Franklin’s aunty, Mrs. Akoto of blessed memory was a biology mistress in the school and her bungalow become our refuge, source of sustenance and an escape from the harsh realities of PRESEC life. The school had a chronic water problem whilst the country was plagued by food shortages but thanks to Franklin’s generosity, we enjoyed Mrs. Akoto’s hospitality. Many of our mates and indeed some juniors benefitted from the food and especially from the water in her reservoir, all thanks to Franklin’s kind heartedness. To this day, Franklin and I would reminisce about the infamous Akoto pepper stew, a fiery sauce that Aunty Doris made which left us pouring with sweat and in tears each time we ate it. Our PRESEC experiences, which came at that critical stage when we were becoming men, were key to the strength of our bond.
Those were truly halcyon days of youth, where some of those stories that we planned to share with the next generation happened – there was the time that, fed up with the alien experience of “bone-to-bone” entertainment evenings, Franklin and I convinced the school administration to release the school bus to us to pick young ladies from Aburi Girls for a records night. You should have been there to hear the eloquent and rational arguments Franklin presented and which convinced the authorities to, not only approve this unprecedented proposal but to then contact their counterparts in Aburi to secure their buy-in.
By the time we left Ghana for university abroad, we had built up a formidable catalogue of similar memorable experiences. They are too many to recount on a day such as this, but these will be my solace and at the same time, the reason why I will miss Onero so much. Like our long vac in Ho where we drove the Peugeot 305 up the steep and slippery road to Gbadzeme and then on to the peak of Mount Gemi. This was a truly hair-raising experience but Onero was in his element, laughing and running non-stop commentary on the risks of falling over the edge into the valley below. Or when we made the illegal crossing of the closed Ghana-Togo border to do some provision shopping in Lome. We had to lie flat on the floor of an old banger which then made the dash across the no-man’s-land between the two countries at dusk. We then hitched a ride on the lorry transporting akpeteshie from the border town, back to Ho. Or going to the dances at Ho Catering Guest House in your Dad’s Cadillac and how all the young ladies there thought we were foreign stars. Or the amazing summer evenings in London eating, sharing a tipple, jamming to some classic soul music and talking deep into the night. Or that memorable day on the porch in Adjiringanor, sipping 100 year old Cuban rum and sampling some of your incredible stock of Cubanos. Or more recently, “breaking out” of Charing Cross hospital with the connivance of the sister in charge of the ward, for a pizza and a glass of wine on the Fulham Palace Road. There was always good music, asa boni, tall tales, nkwasiasem and laughs……endless laughs!
Although studies, work and love pulled us to different parts of the world, we never lost our bond. All we had to do was call and immediately we would arrange to get together and pick up where we had left off. It was a source of great pride watching his meteoric rise in his professional life. As one of the world’s foremost experts on the inner workings of mobile telephone networks, his services were highly sought across the globe. I saw Franklin working at close quarters on two occasions – the first time in Ghana where he would pull all-nighters to solve critical network optimization problems and the other was in Lagos, where he almost single-handedly resolved a catastrophic breakdown. His commitment to his work was exemplary. We could be having sundowners after a long hard day and Franklin will still be tracing through complex networks in his head. Forgetting that I was a lapsed engineer, he would get frustrated when I couldn’t keep up with his diagnostic discourse and say “you K Mens kwraa why you waste money do engineering?” followed by hysterical laughter. I was in awe of his approach which was methodical, detailed and patient – I believe that was the secret to his success and the enviable reputation that he built in the industry.
Franklin loved people. Everywhere we went, Onero would make friends and connections by placing them at ease with his disarming charm and confidence. Male or female, young or old they all could not resist the Onero magic. Perpetually upbeat and positive, he never let whatever challenges he faced become a burden for anyone else. He was deeply saddened when his first marriage did not work out. In particular, he often shared with me how he wished his relationship with Lauren and Selasie could have been protected from the fall out and how he hoped that one day they would be close again. It was one of the few areas that were difficult for Onero to deal with. Another was the sudden passing of his sister, Linda. This hit him very hard and although he rationalized, he never really came to terms with it.
Marrying YaaYaa and the arrival of Kekeli brought him great joy and he found purpose again. They were his life; he lived for them and he never stopped telling them how thankful he was to YaaYaa for the care and love she showed him from the beginning of their journey. Even when he was battling with health issues, his priority was always the welfare of YaaYaa and Keli. He often confided in me that he felt that Yaa was making too many sacrifices for him. He loved his family both nuclear and extended. He was always in his element when he had family around, holding court and making sure that everyone was having a good time.
During our last conversation on the Wednesday before his passing, he shared so many profound sentiments with me. He struggled to find words to describe his happiness and fulfilment at being at home in Ghana, something he had wanted to do for so long. He was thrilled that he had been able to see Mommy and the many relatives who came to see him. He was full of gratitude and just glad that he had been able to make the trip. There are things we spoke about that I now realize were his way of saying goodbye. I had promised to see him on Saturday, and we had planned another session of music, good food, Cubanos and relaxing.
Then the call came on Thursday – I was worried but not overly because Franklin had survived everything that life had thrown at him. I rushed to UGMC and with Yaa, Lester and Maa Abena we did the best to ensure that everything that needed doing for him was done. At around midnight we had a conference with the ER doctor on what options were available. At that late hour, good friends, like Dr. Gordon Appiah, guided us through the discussions on intervention options. I didn’t sleep much that night so when Yaa sent me the message at 4am, I rushed to the hospital. Even then I was clinging on to hope because I knew that you would do everything to protect those you love from the pain of losing you. Yaa and I watched helplessly as you slipped peacefully into the hereafter.
How I wish you were still here with us – we have many more stories to share, many more memories to create, more laughter, more brotherly love to give, more “old school” to jam to, more plots to hatch – it is hard. My heart is full of gratitude that I had the privilege to be your “earthly twin” as Mommy called us, and at the same time the yearning that this is not happening is unbearable.
Onerosk! Yeat-atron! My brother! I’ll try to do what you expect of me for Mommy, Yaa, Lauren, Selasie and Kekeli – I miss you bad but how for do?
You’re my hero, a good warrior, my earthly twin – MAX LOVE, BRO.
Rest easy
Franklin words cannot express the void you have left. You fought a good fight and I shall forever cherish our interactions both physically and verbally.
I spoke with you in Ghana and you were so happy. I was expecting you to come back from Ghana with a renewed vigour to soldier on.
Bro our last communication was on Tuesday when you messaged to talk and I couldn’t then. On Thursday evening I sent you a message asking how you were, I wanted to talk but there was no response.
Little was I know that you had begun your journey to the other realm. Bro it was a total shock on Friday morning when I heard the devastating news that you had moved on to join our ancestors.
Bro I shall always hold a toast to you on our shared birthday.
Rest In Peace Bro.
God be with you till we meet again.