We were inseparable in Senior High School. We were young, happy and all over each other at that time. We made plans to marry in the future and have our own kids. As I type this, I can remember how happy we were together. Teenage love is innocent and pure. That is exactly how our love was. I came from a well-to-do family and he was raised by a single mother who struggled daily to make ends meet. Many of the guys in our class used to ignore me because of the assumption that I was rich and therefore a snub. He didn’t care at all. In fact, we didn’t discuss our backgrounds. We only knew we were in love and we wanted to keep it that way.
After school, we drifted apart. We tried to make it work but a lot of things came between us. He couldn’t further his education and I went to study outside the country. He lost his mum and even though we were communicating, we drifted apart with time and for a couple of years I didn’t hear from him. When I returned to Ghana, I met someone else and we got married two years later. We had two kids through that union. Unfortunately I lost my husband in the June 3rd disaster. A year after that incident, I was promoted at my workplace and transferred to another branch in Cape Coast to be the manager there. I went with my children. I will never have imagined that I would meet my high school boyfriend there. He was their security man. He had never married, although he had three kids with two women. Initially we couldn’t chat lengthly like we used to as teenagers. Our conversations were awkward and forced. Both of us were now far apart in rank and I observed that he was staying away out of respect.
But when I looked at him, I saw a friend I could talk to. I knew that life hadn’t been easy for him. I knew how intelligent he was in school and so I invited him out one weekend to talk and reminisce about the old times. At first he declined my invitation. He told me I was his superior and he was just a security man. It wasn’t appropriate. I felt hurt by his words and it made me insist more. In the end he accepted. Both of us had a lot to catch up on and talk about. We spoke for hours. There was so much to say and so little time to do so. I told him I was a widow. He also shared how his second baby mama left him because he couldn’t provide enough daily ‘chop money’ for their upkeep. I promised I would help him. He had forced himself through the polytechnic and he had an HND. I knew a friend who was looking for someone to hire as an administrative assistant. I told him about it. He went for the interview and got the position. Within three years, he outworked himself and got a raise. All this while, we just maintained a platonic friendship. Both of us too cautious. Both of us were uncertain if a relationship in our adult years will work for us as it did in our teens. But he posed the question first. He told us to try again and we did.
We were married in 2020 when the Covid was severe and there were restrictions. We did a simple ceremony with a few in attendance. We are raising our kids together and this has been the happiest I have ever been with him by my side. I just shared this story because I feel like many times the relationship-related stories we read online have bad endings. I just want to give hope to someone who has lost hope of ever finding love. To the widow or widower, I want to admonish you to give yourself another chance at love. I believe everyone deserves to experience what it feels like to love someone and for the person to love you back with the same intensity. God bless
