Roots and wings: Celebrating Edith Moyo

Edith Moyo

By Lindsey Carter – Horizon News and Features Editor

What if you weren’t able to return home? To the place of your birth. The place where you grew up. The place where you experienced the most struggles and times of peace. The place where your family resides. What if you didn’t get to see them again?

Christmas day 2011, pastoral ministry student Ron Moyo’s life turned upside-down when his mother, Edith Dade Moyo, died of cancer. Moyo had much respect for his mother with whom he had a very strong connection.

“What I remember very profoundly about her was her love for us, her children, and other people,” Moyo said. “This enabled her to be patient with us and to do whatever was within her ability and beyond to make sure we got the roots and the wings so we could fly and fend for ourselves in life.”

The decline in Edith’s health came very suddenly. Three months prior to Edith’s passing, Moyo said her health was good. In fact, his parents anticipated a special day: Originally married with a simple marriage certificate, the two were planning a formal church wedding ceremony on Sept. 18.

“My mom and my dad decided they would have a wedding,” Moyo said. “Sounds funny… but they never had a white wedding.”

Soon after the ceremony, Moyo’s mother began getting headaches and dental pains. After removal of the tooth, her health “started spiraling down.”

In December, Edith made a trip to South Africa in order to meet with Moyo for the first time in seven years. Since Moyo was still unable to return to his home country in Zimbabwe due to political reasons, he and his mother met at his sibling’s home in South Africa.

“It still baffles my mind even to this day to think how my mom was able to endure a journey of about 18-20 hours on the bus to come and see me in her state,” Moyo said. “It was that in-built power in her that I think enabled her to come say goodbye.”

After seeing her first-born son, Edith only lived three more days before passing away on Christmas morning at the age of 67, but Moyo was not alone in his time of grieving nike air max pas cher.

“I got a lot of support and love from the community here,” Moyo said. “That makes a difference in one’s grieving process.”

The loss of his mother came on the heels of an already trying personal story. Moyo began his life in Zimbabwe, a place he describes as full of chaos. In 2006, as conditions in the Zimbabwean government worsened, Moyo left the country and his family to prepare a new home in the United States. He was then joined by his wife and kids in 2009. Moyo applied for and was granted political asylum, in which the United States allows Moyo to stay in the US until it is safe for him to return to Zimbabwe.

While Moyo says that Hesston has been an accepting place that has become like a second home to him, his heart remains in Zimbabwe.

“That vacuum, it can never be replaced, but the love that I’m getting here is good enough for me, to keep me going,” Moyo said.

Add a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *