Gran of Madonna’s adopted daughter wishes to see her for last time
Malawian granny of Madonna’s adopted daughter is ‘terminally’ ill and has sent an emotional appeal to the pop star to let her see the little girl at her birth home before she dies.
The 71-year-old Lucy Chekechiwa is too poor to afford treatment for what is feared to be cancer or a stomach tumour and is worried she will die before bidding farewell to her granddaughter.
UK’s Mirror newspaper reported Sunday that Chekechiwa’s life was ending and begged the millionaire pop singer to allow her see the girl before she breathes her last.
“Please let me see my Mercy before this sickness kills me… My life is ending and I need to bid farewell to my Mercy. Madonna should let her visit me before I die,” the paper quotes Chekechiwa.
The paper said Mercy’s terminally ill gran wept as she sent out her plea to the popular pop diva from her death bed at her remote village of Dzaone in Thondwe, Zomba district.
Due to her illness, the lady is reportedly having memory lapses, slurred speech and swelling in her abdomen.
She had been in hospital but had left it and moved to her village where reportedly said “I want to die here” in her grass-thatched mud house.
Chekechiwa’s 37-year-old son, Peter, who she stays with, said lately her mother has continually been talking about her wish to see Mercy:
“My mother talks of two things – seeing Mercy and dying. But we cannot contact Madonna now,” said Peter.
The son said he went to Madonna’s Raising Malawi Foundation HQ to inform them about her mother’s condition but found it had closed down.
A few months ago, the granny also expressed her bitterness with the pop star for denying her access to Mercy and wondered if she would to see her biological granddaughter again.
Mercy, now seven, was orphaned when her mum Mwandida Maunde – Lucy’s daughter – died aged 18 just two days after giving birth to her.
The gran tried to raise her before realising she needed better care and took her to an orphanage where she visited her regularly.
The little girl was given a new home and life of luxury in 2009 by US singer, who has two natural children and another adopted Malawian son, David Banda.
In April this year, the queen of Pop was in the country with the two adopted Malawian children but Mercy was not given a chance to see her grandmother similarly David, who she adopted in 2006 at an orphanage in Mchinji district, never saw his biological father Yohane James.
David’s 2006 adoption was straightforward, but Madonna had to take her case to adopt Mercy to the Malawi Supreme Court as she had not lived in the country for two years and in her statement to court she promised to bring David and Mercy back to their birth country every two or three years.
