Beautiful marital stories entail many great moments and a promise. A Promise of a Friend Forever encapsulates the love between Ijeoma and Ifeanyi. Read the bride and groom’s friendship tale.

From the bride Ijeoma

So it’s a few days till we say ‘I do’ and I’m truly excited to be taking this giant leap with you. A few people have asked me how I feel. They expect me to be stressed, anxious, or tensed, but I’m simply ‘HAPPY’. I feel nothing but pure joy as I look forward to our forever.

Thinking back through the years, I thank God for one of the most difficult periods in my life because it led me to you. After one year of receiving messages from an anonymous classmate- who chose to play hide & seek and expected me to oblige by investigating his nickname in a class with goodness knows how many students (about 5 departments had lectures together at the time) – I finally ‘caught’ you in 4th year when you came out to do an NCCMDS mime in front of the now specialised class and someone goes, “Feco….”. I don’t even remember who that was but I remember quickly running up to him/her and saying, “show me who the Feco is”. Your game was up.

We became friends almost immediately. It was as if we’d been friends for a while; we did most things together. Of course, it wasn’t all rosy. The idea of dating my classmate was absurd, well meaning friends and fellowship leaders discouraged us, but somehow, we knew we had something real. Something that would stand the test of time.

We went past that and got to the phase of well meaning relatives discouraging us, asking us to reconsider our decision. But we were resolute, we’d just try and try again. We’d lose the battle to live to fight another day. Then there was the test of distance. We’d never been apart and this turned out to unexpectedly be a really tough one. But thank God, through it all, we emerged victorious.

I always told you that there was no proposal that’d be a surprise to me. I mean I already knew it was coming right!? I didn’t realise you took it as a challenge and went above and beyond to surprise me. At our layover in Abu Dhabi as part of a 7-night cruise with my family, our tour bus ‘developed a fault’ at Sadiyat Island and we all had to get down from the bus. In the middle of all the activities and selfies, I felt a tap on my shoulder only to turn around and see you. SHOCK!!! It didn’t even make sense. I was so confused, disoriented. This isn’t Nigeria! How are you at one of our several destinations!? But that was all part of it, my ‘Surprise’. So in front of my grandparents, my parents, siblings, uncles and aunts, cousins, you got down on one knee and asked. Of course I said, ‘I’ll think about it’. Lol!! 5 years with you doesn’t seem long enough so I’ve decided to make it a lifetime.

I thank God everyday for your life. You’ve been an amazing friend, a pillar of support, a fountain of pure love, an epitome of goodness and kindness, My special gift from God. I can’t thank God enough, you’re truly ‘My promise of a friend forever’.

From the groom Ifeanyi

Prologue
Faint footsteps get louder though not able to overshadow the voice of the board member offering his opinion on the issue at hand. The door handle squeaks and the door sluggishly opens as the nails holding the hinges add their high notes to the symphony. A FAIR lady walks in through the space the door has left behind, the dim yellow bulb would not cast enough rays on her face so his brain begins to run the outline of her face and body through to attach an identity but to no avail. ‘She’s new, or probably old but infrequent, anyway, oh time to clap what did he say though? ‘. His eyes won’t stop stealing a glance at that face, this meeting is the least of things on his mind, ‘who is she, what’s her name, what class is she in, should I say hello after the meeting?’. The meeting finally ends and he gets a quick but better view before she hurries off. The thought of the fair lady has taken away the hunger pangs he felt before the meeting, he soon searches through the board directory to find her profile, get her number and take it on from there… ‘ how do I start, what do I say first, my name? noooooo!!!! that’s cliche, …tell her you saw her today looking really pretty at manuwa bus stop and end it as anonymous ‘.And he became ANONYMOUS.

Epilogue
Where I go from here I am not sure, but one thing I’m sure of, I’ll never walk alone. Beneath the cliff, there may be rocks but I will hold on to two things as I jump just like my father did, LOVE (GOD) AND THE LOVER. Faith, hope and love, Love is the greatest….Welcome to the story that never ends, I am the writer, the lover and the loved.