Trevor Noah is mourning the loss of his 95-year-old grandma, Gogo, who was laid to rest on May 12. “This morning our family laid to rest the oldest member of our clan, Frances Noah, or as most of us referred to her, Gogo,” Noah shared on Instagram on Thursday. The post featured a video of a smiling Noah sitting beside his grandma as she playfully asked him, “How can I smile for a photo when I don’t have teeth?”
Remembering some of his best moments with his late grandmother, the “Daily Show” host wrote a heartfelt tribute to Gogo. “My grandmother was born in 1927 and even though she was 95 years old, she still had the best memory of us all,” he said. “Every moment spent with her felt like a magical journey through time where she would recount all of the family’s greatest joys, losses, achievements and milestones. Her house in Soweto wasn’t just a home, it was a refuge, a place where other women would come when they had no other place to go, a place where members of the community would gather to pray together every single week, a place where everyone was guaranteed to feel the love emanating from her mighty chest.”
“I’ve cried all week celebrating the greatest ‘movie’ I’ve ever watched. A story that began with my first breath and ended with her last.”
Fans of “The Daily Show” may recognize Gogo from a 2018 episode when Noah visited his hometown of Soweto, Johannesburg, for an “MTV Cribs”-inspired segment called “Cribs: Oppression Edition.” Along with Noah’s mother, Patricia Noah, Gogo helped raise him when he was growing up in Soweto. During the segment, Noah and his grandmother had an open discussion about Apartheid, a system of institutionalized racial segregation prevalent in South Africa between the 1940s and 1990s. Gogo also revealed that she had a childhood photo of Noah she spoke to every day. “I always look at that photograph . . . and I ask God every morning when I look at it, ‘Morning, Trevor!’ And he never answers!” she joked.
Thanking fans for their messages of support on social media, Noah said, “I know many of you grew to love Gogo from afar and I thank you for the condolences and the blessings you’ve sent in her memory. I’ve cried all week celebrating the greatest ‘movie’ I’ve ever watched. A story that began with my first breath and ended with her last. A woman who showed me the truest definition of unconditional love. She passed away peacefully in her sleep and even blessed us with one final Mother’s Day which she enjoyed to the fullest.”
Noah ended the message by wishing his grandma farewell in Zulu: “Hamba Kahle Gogo.”