Posted by By Yetunde Oladeinde on
Perfumes, clothes, jewelries, shoes and bags. These are some of the things most women like to invest their money in.
Perfumes, clothes, jewelries, shoes and bags. These are some of the things most women like to invest their money in. But for Taiwo Gbadamosi, her priorities are intellectual things instead of material things. The civil servant walks into the office with a big smile and a giant card. Just when you are wondering what it was meant for, the grandmother announces her mission. The crux of the matter is that she is an avid reader of The Sun.
"I came to felicitate with you on your one year anniversary. This card is as big as how I feel for The Sun. It makes my day."
You ask the woman with low cropped hair if there is anything she would like to see in the paper that is not there at the moment. She responds this way: "No. It is a complete newspaper. We pay for three newspapers in one. I always make sure that I read it from page one to the end."
Her romance with the tabloid started the first day she saw the publication on the newsstands. 'I made sure I never missed any edition. I enjoy the true life stories so much. I am also interested in the foreign news and sports pullout. Till date, I don't think I have missed any edition except where I travel out and they don't sell copies in the place."
Just before her romance with The Sun, Gbadamosi read newspapers and magazines regularly to keep abreast of things happening around her and the international scene. You wonder if this was something she picked up from her parents while growing up but she says: "Nobody made me have that interest. It was just I and that was all. My father was a disciplinarian and that helped to give me a focus while growing up. My mother was not as tough as my dad; but she always made sure that she did her own bit."
She adds: "When things were okay and prices okay, I used to buy foreign magazines regularly. It makes me happy to get some of this information regularly in this tabloid. My husband, Michael Olusegun Gbadamosi, is also a regular reader, too".
The mother of four also takes you into her family life and the joys of being a grand-mother. "I have two boys and two girls. The girls are in Dublin while the two boys are here. One of them is doing his Masters programme at the University of Ibadan while the baby of the family is in secondary school."
She also talked enthusiastically about her growing up days. "I am number four in the family and I came before my twin who is Kehinde. Interestingly, we did not relate like twins while we were growing up. First, we were not identical and secondly, she had her own set of friends while I had mine. So, we didn't do the usual things that twins used to do together and all that."
Life as a grandmother has been very fulfilling. "My daughter had twins (boys) and a girl. My second daughter has three children as well and again it is another set of two boys and a girl."
You could call Gbadamosi a detribalised Nigerian from the way she talked about people and what she has done over the years. Her mother is from Okenne in Kogi State while her father is a Yoruba man from the Western part of the country. When she went searching for Mr. Right, she didn't stop until she got to Edo State, Southwest Nigeria.
She got married in 1973 and she tells you that it was the usual boy meet girl thing at the beginning. Three decades after, she is happy that she took that decision. "It has been okay, but I must say that a lot of water has passed under the bridge."
Her leisure is spent watching TV, reading newspaper and talking with a few friends she has kept over the years. "As a civil servant, there isn't much time to do other things like serving the less privileged ones in the society. Maybe when I retire, I would have more time for things like that. But I love to give to the poor and the needy."