Nnenna Will Nnaji

On the 8th Day, of the October, in the year 1958 AD, the family of late Elder Tobias Madukwe Orchingwa and Chief Mrs. Victoria Amunne Orchingwa of Udo-Ezialaukwu, Umunkiri in Mgboko Okengwa Autonomous Community in Obingwa LGA of Abia State, Nigeria, were blessed with a bouncing baby girl. Her parents named her Nnenna Will. Before her birth, they had three other children, two boys and a girl, and her birth completed the equation for two boys and two girls. The joyous moment influenced her parents to name her WILL, meaning “the will of God”. God blessed her parents with four other children after her, thus she is a middle child in the family of eight children, three boys and five girls.

She is the voice that all admired and respected among her siblings. She likes to put everybody straight, even to her elder brothers. She was loved and cherished. She attended elementary school like her pears. In 1984, she was admitted by the famous late Dr. Tai Solarin into Mayflower Secondary School, Ikenne Remo, in Ogun State, Nigeria. She was “EX MAY”. After high school education, she paused briefly by taken up a job in Lagos, but her desire to acquire more knowledge was burning in her. In fall 1979, she was admitted into Adventist Seminary of West Africa, now Babcock University in Ogun State, where she graduated and earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Public Health Science.

Having fulfilled part of her academic interests, she started nursing the idea of getting married. Lo and behold a handsome gentleman with Afro hair fell on her laps, in the person of Udo Nnaji. She was married and joined into holy matrimony in December 26, 1985. Her marriage is blessed with four beautiful children, three boys and a girl, namely, Chimere, Chiwendu, Chiamaka and Chisom.

On coming to USA in 1988, she continued to pursue her career in health science. She was admitted into Prairie View College of Nursing in fall 1993. She combined child bearing, full-time studies, and working full-time, the role she played excellently. At some point along the line she had a baby and was back to school with 72 hrs. She was such that will achieve whatever she sets her mind to. In the fall of 1995, she graduated with a BSN, in Nursing. She passed the Texas Board of Nursing exams a month later.

She worked in the ICU, OR, ER, Telemetry, in area hospitals: -- St. Joseph Hospital, Park Plaza, Ben Taub, West Houston Hospital, Bay Shore, etc. She branched out into private business, and joined her two Sisters, Helen Ajiwe and Josephine Onuoha to form Trii Star Medical Staffing Inc. Trii Star medical staffing became a successful business because of their dedication and hard work. They managed the business successfully, helping fellow nurses to find employment and area hospitals with supplemental staffing. This company thrived for twelve years and was a force to recon with until the Directors descided to part. In 2004 she became a director and a board member of Simplex Health And Allied Service Inc. A company she cherished and managed effectively until 2013.

Throughout her life Nnenna had the knowledge and fear of The Lord, and she imparted such to her children. Her fear of God is evident in her children . Children who knew what is expected of them and knew that their mom led by example of the life she lived. Her home church was the United African Seventh-day Adventist in Houston, where she served as a deaconess, prison ministry member, and Adventurer Club Sponsor. She took great delight in making herself a better person and believed that the christian walk is a faith walk. She trusted God simply and completely to do the impossible. Her faith was unwavering even as she faced the ordeal of her illness. I am yet to find some one with greater strength, tenacity, endurance and perseverance.

She taught each one of us a lesson during her last days. A lesson of faith, of trust, of love of surrendering to the will of God. In spite of every discouraging symptoms she believed that Gods word will not lie and will not fail. God does not lie and will never failed. When modern medicine failed with all its sophisticated machinery, God had the last say. On thursday, March 13, 2014 God answered her prayer, our prayers as he restored her, broke the chains that held her down, restored her body and took her home to be with Him in heaven. To a home that cancer can never penetrate. A home not make with human hands, a home who the builder and maker is God. Though her family, church family, and friends are mourning, we shall see her again in the resurrection morning.

Udo Nnaji

For the Family.