So emotional
I was 12 years old when I got
married to him. I still remember.
He came with a horse cart to
marry me. No one got married in
my entire village with a horse
cart. I was so happy and proud!
My husband paid 10 thousand naira at that time for it. He could have bought a very big paddy field with that money!
After our wedding my husband
used to call me 'Ranga Bou' which
means ‘beautiful wife’. He said I
was the most beautiful woman
he had ever seen in his whole life.
But my husband had such dark
skin colour that the village people
always made jokes about him.
They used to tell him he was like
"a black stone wearing a pearl
necklace." But my husband never
minded; he seemed happy and
smiled when people told that
joke! He always said to me, “See
how beautiful you are!”
For the last 75 years we have
been together. Two years ago, I
went to visit my elder son and his
family. I left my husband with my
younger son and his family. My
daughter-in-law said he used to
call out every 10 minutes, “where
is my Ranga Bou! Has she called?
When is she coming back?”
He becomes crazy without me. We
have never been separated in our
entire married life. We wake up
together and pray our morning
prayers together. He cannot eat
if I don't cook the meal with my
own hands! But when we sit
down to eat he gives me the
biggest piece of the fish!
If I ever got mad at him and
stopped talking to him, he always
sat beside me and never moved
to anywhere else until I smiled at
him. If I disappeared for a few
minutes from his sight, he used to
look for me everywhere and
started calling, “where is my
Ranga Bou?” I can never go
anywhere because of him.
Maybe we will not see each other
much longer. We are almost near
our last age! I don't want to go
before him. He will become crazy
without me. He will look for his
Ranga Bou everywhere! My wish
is for God to take me after him!
written by: TIFE TODUN
read more www.tife.art.blog.