Stephen and Adanma signed the dotted lines and they were pronounced husband and wife. Lydia, Adanma’s mother was happy that her daughter was going to be happy with a man she loved; a man she chose out of many suitors that came asking for her hand in marriage. She knew that her daughter would be happier than most of her friends’ daughters, whose marriages crashed after a few years.

She imagined herself travelling to the United Kingdom for omugwo (baby nursing) when the children start to come. She also imagined how she would be walking on the streets of the UK, taking a walk in the cool of the evening. In her mind’s eye, she saw herself dressed for visiting and going for shopping. She was really lost in thought, and without knowing it, she started speaking to herself. “I would visit some of my friends I have not seen for ages, who reside there. I will be happy once again, they will know that Ada took her time to pick the best out of all her suitors,” she giggled in the church while the wedding was going on.

In her mind’s eye, she recollected the day she went to the hospital to have Adanma, how she delivered her and how the doctor carried the baby and said she was beautiful. She vividly recalled how her baby beat other babies hands down in an internal beauty competition the hospital conducted for them.

She was indeed happy. She remembered that Adanma is an exact copy of her. She looked very much like her. “It is good for one to have somebody who looks very much like her mother,” she said, still giggling. Guests who came for the wedding saw her giggling and thought she was giggling because of what was happening in the wedding. But that wasn’t so; Lydia’s mind had travelled thousands of miles away.

In the background, she suddenly heard her daughter’s voice saying, ‘I do’ and the way her husband unveiled her and gave her a passionate kiss immediately the officiating priest gave him the permission to do so. There was a loud applause and that was what brought Lydia’s mind back to the wedding ceremony. She too clapped and smiled, thanking God for blessing her with a daughter as beautiful as Adanma.

From the time she was born, to the time she was an infant and even to the present time she is on the altar, the beauty has not faded. This is little wonder she had many suitors, whom she refused to marry until Stephen came. “I was really in love with him because of the way he cared for me. I saw love in his eyes too.”

When they travelled to the UK, Adanma got a job after writing an exam there and she did well for herself. The couple was happy and the marriage was instantly blessed with two children. “I never had problems with pregnancy and just like Mama told me, that as soon as I travel with my husband, I should not waste time to give her amiable son in-law children so that she would come over there for omugwo. It was as if my unborn children heard the voice of their would-be grand mother. They came without hesitation.”

They were married for a decade before the devil threw a spanner in the marriage. The marriage was shattered, the couple divorced and Lydia felt bad. Adanma too tried all she could to save her marriage from crashing, but all to no avail.

When she parted from her husband, and realised that everything in the UK reminded her of Stephen, she relocated to United States with her two children. It wasn’t easy for her without a father-figure in the house, but somehow God gave her the grace to see her children as her husband. Her job also helped to keep the bitterness over the divorce at bay. She raised her children well. They are both grown ups and soon they will be independent of their mother. “Yes, soon they will be on their own and you can imagine how this place, I mean the home front, will look without a man, a husband,” Adanma said.

Adanma is reserved and doesn’t believe in having a live-in lover with her, maybe because of her background. She needs a husband. “I grew up in a strict Christian family. My father frowned at illicit relationships and my mother hated it with a passion. So that too became part of me. When I was growing up, I avoided illicit affairs like a plague. I refused to have boyfriends here and there, even when my friends were doing it. I had so many proposals from men, which I turned down until Stephen came. And when he eventually came, I refused to go beyond his sitting room whenever I visited him because I was so careful not to drag my mother’s name in the mud,” she said.

She reeled out the quality of a man she needs with reasons. “You see, I’m 47 years old this year and I would like to have a man I’m not older than.”

But why? Love is no respecter of age. It is a good feeling that doesn’t consider age as a serious factor or hindrance. But she explained, “You see, I don’t want anybody whose mother would feel cheated, whose mother would feel I have hijacked her son. I want a man who is in his early 50s. A widower, or preferably a divorced man. The person should get his papers to show me he is really divorced because I wouldn’t want to shatter any marriage. I know what it is for a marriage to shatter and I wouldn’t want to wish that for any woman. Also the person must be a Nigerian from any tribe. He must be presentable and should not be disabled in any way.

“Such a person would not have difficulty in relocating to the United States to meet me for the marriage rite. I will help him to do his papers so that he will come over here. His trip to this place shouldn’t be a hindrance at all,” she assured.

Readers, what do you think? I think the world will be a better place for us all when a person is happily married than being alone, don’t you think so? Any interested person should call this writer or send a mail through the e-mail address on this page.

Chei de tory long o! 47 with 2 grown up kids? Ha! that'll be tough