The Silent nurses of sickle cell: Lessons from Funmi Eko Ezeh’s ‘Everyday with sickle cell’

They are present in the quietest hours of the night, when the rest of the world sleeps and pain becomes a restless visitor. They hold the hands of children in crisis, whispering comfort, counting breaths, waiting for dawn. These are the mothers, the nurses, and the family members who live with sickle cell disease not by diagnosis but by devotion. They are the silent nurses, the invisible backbone of caregiving in Nigeria. Funmi Eko Ezeh’s Everyday With Sickle Cell captures their lives with tenderness and truth, inviting readers to see the uncelebrated work that keeps countless families afloat.

At first glance, Ezeh’s book appears to be a family story, a tale of love, faith, and the slow adjustment to life with an unpredictable illness. Yet beneath its surface lies a meditation on labour that goes unseen. In the opening chapter, “How It All Started,” the reader meets Lara and Dele Adeyanju, parents whose careful lives are shaken by a misdiagnosis. Their daughter, Teni, is born with sickle cell disease, and the family must suddenly learn what it means to live between hope and heartbreak. The scene is intimate and ordinary. There is no melodrama, only the quiet panic of parents trying to understand a new world that revolves around their child’s pain.

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