Dr. Maya
Okafor

Doctor of Medicine · Class of 2026

Six years. One title. Earned twice over.

A letter of commendation

Our Maya,

We watched you study at the kitchen table until the candles of two birthdays came and went. We watched you fail the cardiology block, cry once, briefly, and sit back down. We do not know anyone else who sits back down the way you do.

Your grandmother, who wanted to be a nurse and was never permitted to be one, kept every one of your exam timetables folded in her Bible. She would like you to know the title is hers too. You said it first; we are simply recording it.

Whatever rooms you walk into now — wards, theatres, the hard conversations at 3 a.m. — walk in knowing that an entire family stands quietly in the corridor behind you.

With honour and overflowing hearts,
Mum, Dad, Chidi & Grandma Ngozi

The long way round

A ledger of six years

Sept 2019

First day. You called home twice before noon.

Mar 2021

The cardiology block. The once, briefly. The sitting back down.

June 2023

First white coat. Grandma ironed it three times.

Nov 2024

The night shift you talked a frightened man through till morning. He wrote to the ward about you.

Last Tuesday

She passed.

Dr. Maya Okafor in her white coat and stethoscope, photographed by her father — Photographed by her father, who practised saying “my daughter, the doctor” for six years.

Let the record state

She did not become a doctor last Tuesday.
She became one slowly, for six years,
and last Tuesday the world caught up.

Dr. Maya Okafor · MMXXVI

Dr. MayaOkafor

A ledger of six years

The Diploma

Dr. Maya
Okafor