In July 1972, Abbam's husband died, leaving her with small children. She wrote about her treatment as a widow, summarily dispossessed by her husband's family, in "Obaa Sima". In 1975 she was awarded a United Nations fellowship to attend the World Conference on Women in Mexico City, reviewing the place of Ghanaian women in the mass media. In 1993 she was enstooled Queenmother of the Anona Clan in the Ekumfi Eyisam in the Central Region, making her Nana Assanwa Ewudziwa Gyampaafor II.