The above picture was taken in 1987.
I remember that very interesting day in 1983 when I met
Titilola at a colleague’s birthday party.
Most of the female guests were college students and she
was among them. Unlike others who dressed flamboyantly to impress, her attire
was, to say the least, drab. But her beauty was glaring with an elegant poise,
panache and of course, a no-nonsense attitude.
Shortly after I started “campaigning” to her, she obliged
my request for a dance. After dancing to two records, the music of Marvin Gaye,
“Sexual Healing” came on. And, impulsively, I reached out my hands. But to my
surprise, she stepped back, stared at me coldly and gently pulled me aside.
“Excuse me!” she whispered. “Did you just try to bring me
into your arms…?”
“Hey…” I tried to
explain. “I just wanted to dance…”
“Really…with me in your arms…?” she now pointed in the
direction of the dance floor. “Do you think I’m one of those ladies over there
who have been flirting with you all night?”
I was about asking what she was talking about but she
turned right back toward her seat. Grabbing my chair, I went over to seat
beside her. She stared at me like “I thought I just put you in your
place?”
With Titilola (unlike most women I had dated before her)
it was just not enough to profess love. It had to be proved and “beyond every
reasonable doubt”. Never hesitating to blow her own trumpet, she made it very clear
that she had every moral reason to make men wait until she was able to figure
out “Mr. Right”. For instance, it took almost forever before I was allowed a
kiss. An ordinary peck on the cheek took about a year!
I do wonder sometimes how many young women of these days are
made this way.
In retrospect, wooing a lady in those days was all painstakingly
“analogue” unlike these days when Facebook alone facilitates a “digitalized”
relationship on a platter of gold.
And so…to you, Titilola, iyawo mi atata: Happy 26th
wedding anniversary!!!
