For Valentines Day 2016, I did a special piece whereby some of my favorite men were asked to give an account of how they met their wives and they very willingly obliged. I think the fact that I bullied them into it also helped (only joking) But I was going through some of my past articles through the years, and I came across this particular one which Dr Dapo Williams had also participated in. I have extracted his piece and posted it in his honour. BJ
I met my wife Tina at a party a friend threw for his girlfriend at the Lord’s Club in Maryland (Nigeria’s version of the US ‘SoulTrain’ a top of the pop TV music and dance programme in the 80’s) of which I was a member.
She had come with her other friends to attend the party for the lady who was also her friend. They were seated in the guests’ area, and I and my friends were in the ‘members’ area. She was introduced to me by her friend who happened to be the twin sister of the celebrant. I have heard about her before then but never met her till that day. We chatted and danced to a few numbers on the night and afterwards, we kept in contact by going for lunch at convenient locations.
She was working with the First Bank at their Head office on Marina in Lagos and I was working with Chevron Oil Company on Victoria Island then. Our regular lunch venue whenever I was in town was then The Museum Kitchen@Onikan, as I sometimes worked on the oil rig and dehydration locations in Escravos, Port Harcourt and Warri.
The rest is history now.
To be honest, I had heard lots about her before then and I had been secretly ‘eyeing’ her by driving past their house on Obalende Road in Ikoyi, from my residence in Surulere or on my way back from the office but didn’t have the courage to stop to say hi as she has a senior brother who was a top military officer who visited their parents regularly. They lived very close to Dodan Barracks then and you do not mess about around soldiers!
I proposed to my wife six months later on my birthday in March of the following year. We planned to get married on her birthday which was in September of the same year but because her birthday fell on a Monday (being a weekday) and her uncle who was going to chair the occasion Dele Giwa (of blessed memory) was out of the country. So we shifted the wedding to the first available Saturday which was five days later.
We got married at Catholic Church of Assumption, Falomo in Ikoyi area of Lagos, administered by Archbishop Olubunmi Okogie and the reception took place at the Military Officers Mess in Ikoyi.
We had our honeymoon in Canada and did some shopping on our way back in New York and London to redeem some of our wedding gifts.
We have been living together now for thirty good years with a lovely home and a beautiful daughter.
We’ve had own share of marital teething experiences, but my wife is a ‘fighter’ as she survived my stray bullets! The secret of our sustainable marriage is valuing each other, respect for both families, communicating even when we’re having our ‘mini’ marital cold wars and daily prayers!
I am Yoruba from Lagos and my wife is from the old ‘Bendel’ now Edo State but they were all born, raised and schooled in Lagos in Lagos and are proper ‘omo eko’ She respects my Muslim background and I respect her catholic doctrines – we both have a common ground to serve God regularly. We don’t call ourselves by name but ‘Darl – both ways!
Rest in peace, Otunba Dr Dapo Oshun williams
*This piece has been extracted from an article published on this site in February 2016
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