CHUKWUNETA OBY FROM PUNCH
I met the husband first. He was recommended (as a good tailor) by the market women that sold some fabrics to me.
Both husband and wife were into dressmaking!
In the course of “getting to know ourselves more”, he introduced me to his wife and even showed me her shop.
The strongest image of them in my mind was the day that I walked into his shop and met husband and wife having a good time (chatty banters and laughter) over two bottles of Sprite and a loaf of bread.
They were so engrossed in themselves that they didn’t immediately notice my presence.
I also remember assuming they had grown-up children, who had probably left home because they seemed to be in their middle ages.
Besides, I had seen a couple of young boys in his shop whom I felt were their children.
What I would later learn (barely a year later and after the marriage had ‘scattered’) was that they didn’t have children and they had been married for about 15 years.
The surprise here was how I learned the marriage was no more!
I had gone for my fabrics and the man excitedly mentioned that he was in my neighbourhood and told me why.
He had just paid the bride price of a lady he described as ‘pino-pinonwa’ (fresh and young). He told me how he was planning to establish a business venture for her.
“What about your wife?” was all I could say!
That’s when he told me that they didn’t live together anymore.
According to him, she moved out of their matrimonial home.
She was having problems with his folks, whom she had always claimed did not like her.
They did not have children, although he tried convincing me that this wasn’t an issue for him.
What I didn’t hear from him was the account of the efforts he made to smoothen the relationship between the wife and his people. I don’t know why men fail at this…a lot!
What I didn’t sense from him was regret or remorse of some sort for a marriage of over 15 years that had failed, in which that woman was probably very instrumental to what he is today…that could even attract a ‘pino-pinonwa’.
