True love does not die!

A 58-year-old man, Mzee Selemia Ayeko
Wandago, recently married a 64-year-old
woman, Phyllis Okisa, who he had been
secretly admiring close to four decades in
Kenya, sde.co.ke reports.

“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.

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. His wife 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 decided to be 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. 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.

Love conquers all things!