The man identified as Mzee Selemia Ayeko Wandago from Likoni,
Mombasa County, Kenya had admired a woman, Phyllis Okisa, for up to 40
years without the heart to propose to her.
He has finally married the 64-year-old woman 4 decades later.
"Finding true love has not been easy, especially after I parted
ways with my first wife with whom we bore two sons (now grown ups) and
my second wife who passed away, leaving me with three young children," says Ayeko whose wife from his second marriage died while giving birth.
According to Standard Digital, Ayeko says they knew each other
decades ago when Okisa regularly came visiting her sister, who was
married to the former’s uncle.
The two love birds confessed that at some point they got attracted
to each other, but could not date for fear of stigma associated with
relative (however distant) who fall in love.
"We knew one another when we were both young. We liked each other, but we were never romantically involved," says Okisa.
In 1969, months after they met, the then 17-year-old Okisa got married and gave birth to a baby boy who died a year later.
Ayeko, on the other hand, got married and even had a family.
"I developed complications during my second pregnancy while in
my 20’s. Things got bad and my uterus had to be removed due ectopic
pregnancy related complications," says Okisa whose fate was later
sealed after her then husband’s relatives got him a second wife whom she
couldn’t get along with, leading to a nasty separation.
Decades later the two found themselves living in the same
neighborhood at Maweni in Likoni, with Okisa making regular visits as a
relative.
"She (okisa) used to regularly visit and we continued to refer
and treat each other as shemeji. My second wife was very kind and
welcoming and always welcomed Okisa in our home and treated her like the
relative she was," says Ayeko who confesses that much as he still
was attracted to Okisa, he suppressed the affection without knowing that
the feeling was mutual.
When Ayeko’s second wife died in 2011, while giving birth due to
high blood pressure, he had nobody to take care of him and his young
children other than Okisa, whom he insists they still had not had any
romantic involvement whatsoever at that point.
"She would come, wash clothes and cook for me and return to her
home. I will never forget 2015 when my hand hurt with mdudu (a painful
infection on fingers common at the Coast). No neighbour came to assist
me and the three small children but her,"
He says he was touched when she told him she would continue taking
care of him and the kids even after his hand healed. I told her to come
and live with me so that she she would take care of the children since
she was chased away by her husband for lack of children."
"I had given up on finding love. Ayeko is a blessing to me,
says Okisa, a vendor who originally hailed from Luanda in Vihiga County.
The two love birds got married at Christ Evangelical Church in Shimanzi
with the blessings of Bishop John Oketch Olwande who presided over
their nuptials in May 1 2016.
"I love my husband since he does not drink alcohol."
Ayeko says he intends to take Okisa to meet his relatives now that they are now husband and wife.
No comments:
Post a Comment