Ndile George Njenge

Georgy was born in Victoria, now Limbe in Cameroon, on June 20th 1955 to Thomas Abole Njenge and Esther Kinjenti Njenge. He was the 3rd of thirteen children of which 9 are girls (Victorine, Alyse, Agnes Dorothy, Cecelia, Rachel, Edna, Clodine, Vivian,) and 4 boys (Jean, George, Louis and Kevin). He was baptized in the Catholic faith in Buea town and attended Catholic Primary School, Buea station.

He later on attended Government Technical College GTC in Ombe; which is in the South West part of Cameroon. When he came to the United States, he attended Geneva college where his extremely good soccer skills earned him a scholarship despite the fact that he was a late comer to the team. He graduated with a Bachelors in Civil Engineering. For graduate school, he attended the University of New Orleans and later transferred to Colorado State University where he graduated with a Masters in Civil Engineering. He moved to California where he started a family with his wife Nzelle and worked as an engineer for Caltrans (California Department of Transportation) . My brother loved his wife and three kids Abole, Ekone, and Sone dearly, and did all he could to provide for his family.

My brother was a hardworking man and made sure everyone around him pulled their weight too. Even as an employee with Caltrans, Georgy and Nzelle, ventured in other businesses to make ends meet. In the real estate business, they bought and renovated houses to rent out. They also bid on road construction jobs from the City of Sacramento and State of California. In 2010 he took an early retirement to devote more time to his family and businesses. Like most businesses, the real estate venture had its ups and downs especially when the housing market crashed in 2008 and my brother lost almost everything, but that did not stop him. He took it like a man and acted like nothing happened and tried again.

My mother always advised us to keep our dirty laundry in the house and to never let the whole world know what was going on in your house. To never let on whether you had a meal that day or not. To always hold your head up high no matter how bad things were. That’s exactly what my brother did when he had problems with his real estate business. The next move was to venture into opening an oil refinery in Cameroon, despite advice from people like my husband Jean Marie who reminded him that the Gov’t of Cameroon can never allow a private citizen to own a refinery in Cameroon. When that did not go through as predicted, the next move was to start a poultry farm in Cameroon. That too was also short lived.

Georgy was the typical African man who rarely showed his emotions, but you could tell that he cared and loved you from his actions and the way he spoke. When I arrived the US and resided with him in New Orleans, one afternoon, he bought some whoppers and we went to the banks of the Mississippi river to eat and catch up on how everyone was doing back in Cameroon. On our way back home later that evening, as we crossed the Greater New Orleans bridge of the Mississippi river, which links the West Bank to the rest of New Orleans, he pointed towards a direction and said, “Alyse, do you see that street over there, if I ever catch you there, I will shoot you and shoot myself”. I asked him what he was pointing at he replied, “Just remember what I told you”. When I finally learnt the street he was pointing to was Bourbon Street; a street famous for its shady night life, nude clubs and prostitution etc., it dawned on me that, my brother loves and cares about me.

Georgy wore many hats in addition to being a hardworking father to his family, He was also our father, a devoted uncle to Grace, Yolande, Abole, Stephanie, Louis (Junior) Synpho, Randolph Beh, Pius, George, Tatiana, Delphine, Ivo, Kibol, Don Hilda; to name a few. Not to mention being grandfather to Rachel, Richie, Alianora, Agi and more. Georgy paid attention to all of our complaints/concerns and was always there when needed at a moment’s notice. He rarely called, but whenever he did or if someone called him, you had to be prepared to stay on that phone for hours because Georgy will like to catch up with everything in your life since your last conversation with him. We jokingly refered to it as: Georgy wanting to know how the pot, the pan, and the spoon were doing. That was our big brother- the head of the family and father of brides.

Georgy was also a comedian in his own way. His sons in-law; Jean Marie, Mathurin and Appollo know what I am talking about. I do recall at my wedding reception when Georgy was given the microphone to speak as the father of the bride, he started by asking all the single men in the room to start lining up to see him because he has a bunch of girls in the family to give away. Yep! That was my brother.

Georgy had this trait, where he could turn a casual conversation into a heated argument. I bet his friends; Chris, Maureen, Christiana, Pam, Julius, Sharriffo, to name a few; not to mention Nzelle; who lived with this every day, are now shaking their heads in confirmation to what I am saying right now. These arguments always started with Georgy disputing your point of view, but ended up with him siding with you. I once asked my brother why he did that, his response was that he liked picking people’s brains to see if they knew what they were talking about”. It took my husband quite some time to finally understand that Georgy meant no harm. He was just testing people’s intellect on the subject.

I did not know my brother had a wild side, until I accompanied him to the car auction in Vallejo. He loved going to the auction to get construction equipment. For the most part, he left the house with a particular item in mind, but always came back with more than something else. This time he was looking for a road paving equipment. There we were, standing and watching people bid on a yellow corvette, since they had not yet arrived at the area for construction equipment. I noticed that there were times the auctioneer pointed to where we were standing. I turned around to see if the man standing behind us was bidding. No, he was not! I checked the other side, nope, not him either. When I looked at Georgy to ask him why the auctioneer kept pointing at us, I saw him twitching his nose; there it was, my brother was bidding on this nice yellow corvette. Wow! Wow! Imagine my shock. I could not wait to get home later that day to tell Nzelle about the race car driver husband.

As head of the family, my brother was also generous with his time and it didn’t matter what part of the country. Not even his ailment from diabetes and the fact that he was receiving dialysis could stop Georgy from making his presence known. One close call when he almost missed out as father of the bride was at Grace’s wedding in Houston. And even then, it was due to traffic coming back from his dialysis appointment. Thank goodness his aunt, Ma Josephine was there, who told me that his nephew Ewane was around to step in his place to start the wedding, until he got there. As recently as mid-November he attended a combined birthday party for Agnes, Dorothy, Rachel and Paula.

Georgy really loved life and was looking forward to his second retirement. He had planned on buying an RV to take the entire family on a road trip to discover the country. As a matter of fact this was all Georgy talked about. He even brought that up during his last conversation with my husband in late November.

Little did we know that, as he was planning his retirement road trip, God had other plans for him. December 19th, 2019 will forever be embedded in my heart not because 10 years ago on that same day Georgy held my hand and walked me down the aisle as father of the bride, but the day the Lord held his hand to follow the highway to heaven. All I can say at this juncture is that, Boma tree don fall.

Today is a very sad day for us. We have lost our father, husband, brother, uncle, father in-law, and grandfather. It broke our hearts to lose you, but Georgy please turn around for a second to see who decided to join you a month after you made that trip; your big brother Jean. Georgy, the pain is too much, but I know we will be just fine knowing that Mom, Dad, sister Victorine, Benedict Ntomb, Ngo-njel, Victorine Nkwame are all waiting for you guys with open arms. They will take good care of you, just like you did us.

Georgy, as much as we love you, we have to let go, for we find solace in the fact that you have not left us, but have gone ahead to meet the other family members. We will continue to share the memories we had with you today, tomorrow and in the years to come to help deal with the pain of losing you and more importantly, to serve as a gift of your life to us.

Georgy, we love you and will miss you forever.

May your soul rest in perfect peace big brother/dad.