PLEASE, IF YOU ARE IN A SERIOUS RELATIONSHIP LEADING TO MARRIAGE, DON'T READ THIS...AND IF YOU DON'T WANT TO MARRY AT ALL, DON'T ALSO READ. IT... GOD BLESS YOU....

That was the second time I will actually tell you that I fell in love to that beautiful girl...

Among all the rich and and cute guys that were asking her out, it was me she accepted me...

Some people used to buy all manner of ice creams, snacks etc and bring to her...

But the only thing I used to bring was love letter that I used to spend the whole night writing...

When I come to submit my love letter, she will bring out the ice cream and snacks other guys brought and we Will eat it...

And when i am leaving, the whole family will accompany me to where I will enter vehicle...

It was like I won a lottery that 2003 ...
I was going crazy in love for that small girl...

I could trek kilometers alone, to no where, just fantasizing how our future was going to be like?...

Many times, while trekking, I will realize that I have crossed the boundary of our town into another town...

Then, I will start coming back again...

One day, I gathered 3 of my friends inside one uncompleted fast food joint...
Brought one cheap engagement ring I got from the market....

As she closed her eyes, I put the ring in her finger... That was how I got her engaged...

2 of her close friends were there too...
We shouted,...wow wow...

Everyone was happy...
And everyone was congratulating me...

To me, Lifted Nwokeoma don blow...
To date one of the most beautiful girls in town that time ...

A girl that was controlling the traffic of all the big boys in town and yet, she doesn't even talk to them for five minutes and she will excuse herself....

"Please, I am engaged to Lifted Nwokeoma and I love him...There is nothing else I can do..."

That was what she was telling every guy...
And those guys will be asking themselves: "Who is this Lifted Nwokeoma"...

They thought I used to come with bigger cars than theirs ...

Without knowing that the only thing I used to come with was full-scalp sheet paper...
Full of different love letter and poems...

It was not just a secret dating..
Her parents and siblings knew us..
We were often together...

Though it took more than one year before we ate that 'forbidden fruit'...
Even when we were not even born again...

My mum and few of my siblings knew her too...
And you can't but agree that were were meant to be together...

But one of my elder sisters told me one day while we were together..

"Your finance is very beautiful for your level ooo... Before you graduate from school, other people would have taken her from you oo... I just have to prepare your mind for what is coming...So that you will not cry too much when it will happen..."

My Lady was there and we laughed together...
And she told my sister to watch out, that it will never happen...

And daily, she kept promising and reassuring me that she will never never leave me for another man...

Friends, I don't know if you have ever been in love to the point that when you see that person, you won't know how to express the love...

If you want to say: 'I love you', tears will just be rolling down your checks...

The tears brought by joy, peace, security, surety and unconditional love you are enjoying ...

Some times, if she visits me in school and if its time for her to leave I will suddenly fall sick...
And will start shivering...

She will start crying...
Begging me to get well...
Since we will still see the next dew days...

And sometimes, even if I have gotten well, I will pretend as if I was still sick, and she will change her mind and stay back...

My friends will be making mockery of me, because I have made boasts severally to them...Never again to love a woman to that point ...

After my first real cherished relationship collapsed with no tangible reason...
I taught it was not necessary again...

So, to me, going through the corridor of love was not important again...
Since I didn't know when next it will evaporate again...

But I helplessly fell in love with this girl...
And could not hide it...

There was no kind of poem I didn't write with her name...

For the first time in my life, I used my dialect, IBO language to write poem of love...

Today, I wonder where those inspirations came from... Because I can't function in that office again oo ...

Lord, don't leave me this way ooo...
Your son truly needs emotional revival...

Lol... I no fit laugh here abeg oo...

Then, if you enter my room in campus, you will think its a female hostel ....
Because, it is only her picture that you will see every where...

The kitchen was a little bit far from the room, yet, I still kept her pictures there...
Even when I was not the only user of that kitchen ....

And every morning I will come and start cleaning the pictures, one after the other ...

If she is visiting, she will tell me the things she will like to cook...But before she comes, I would have cooked it ...

Though she used to complain that I waste ingredients... And Many times, we will throw away the one I cooked and she will cook another one...

Some times, we will still manage it like that ...

It is either too much pepper or too much salt or too much oil...

Yet, it was fun, especially when friends and room mates were always around ...

We were happy...
If i tell you i don't miss that girl, the truth is not in me...

As you are reading this, she too is reading it now... And I can imagine how much she will be laughing now...

Friends, it is nice being in love oo...

Stop taking down on love because you have not been privileged to fall in love genuinely ...

When you see people in love, claim it...
Don't start calling them fools...
And don't think every man is like the man that broke your heart and ran away...

Boy, don't think that every babe is like that girl you used your school fees to flex yet she still abandoned you for a final year student...

There are still real people ooo
If it didn't work with you and them, don't worry....

There is something else it will work with...

I am a witness that love without sexual attachment can be very fun...

The little we had then was the best ...
Anything we didn't have, we termed it that we didn't need it...

Her siblings were like siblings to me and I was like the elder brother...
We flowed and we flowed...

Some times I will take her out and we will be strolling, to everywhere...

When we want to eat enough suya and chicken, and if we don't have enough money...

I will dress her up in a very sharp way...
And we will be strolling...

In less than 20 minutes, some men will pull over, begging us for direction...

She will tell them we are actually strolling...
And they will carry us...

Inside the car, she will introduce me as her elder brother that she came to visit...

And I will start playing along ...
Nollywood will start...

My voice will change...
I will start sounding like elder brother...
And she will replying me with: "Ok brother Iyke"...

When our eyes jam each other through the mirror, we will smile....

They will take us out, buy us all manner of things... And still come and drop us in her 'elder brothers house'...

And she will give them my number...

When they call me later I will tell them that she has travelled to the village to do farming, forgetting her phone in my house...

And they will be wondering how such sleek girl will be going to farm in the village...

They kept calling to find if she came back...
But Up til now, she is still in the village, farming...
Lol...

Friends, that girl was everything I had then...
We understood each other perfectly ...
That even in my absence, she can answer you how I should have answered you in any matter...

To her, there is no kind of man that will make her cheat on Iyke Oriaku...

And To me, I could not even imagine thinking of another lady...

Every lady that knew me knew her as my wife to be... And we were so socially accepted...

I was not rich...
But the little I had was enough for us...

Sometimes, when we are together, we wont even remember that we have not eaten the whole day...

Too many gists...
To many jokes...
Too many movies to see and critique...
Too many fantasies to build...

I had a Non Governmental Organization we opened, which she too was so passionate about...

Together, we went to offices of different governors and Vice Chancellors of Universities and commissioners etc...

And we were Happy with results we were having....

She knew nothing about the street that 'made' me ... So, I initiated her into street mentality....
And she became pro ...

We were building our future...
Everyday we kept changing the number of the children we will give birth to...

Today, she will say 4, tomorrow I will say 7...
And that was how we kept adding and reducing their names...

We were in love...
We had so much confidence ...
And there were no secrets...

She had my phone and I had hers...
I knew all her toasters and even the ones she was liking ...

And she knew those I was also eyeing before we met...

No jealousy...
No suspicion and no ulterior motive...
My friends were her friends...
And before she makes my enemy her enemy, she would have tried to settle us...

If the person didn't want peace, then, she will follow me...

We were just living in Paradise...

There is nothing more sweet than when you are in love with who loves you and love all you stand for...

I don't want to talk about how this beautiful journey ended... Because right now, I am getting very emotional...

But some times, next week, if there is need, I will talk about how we became history today ...

I feel like crying here...
But its well...

I am writing to someone reading this...
Who is praying for a relationship that will lead to marriage...

You are tired of wasting your time with people who hang around for benefits...

You know you can love, but the issue is who to love...

There is no length you cant go to prove love...

I am talking to you ....

You don't need much, just the security of your emotions...

You need money, but the absence of it won't affect the love...

All you need is just something more than a fiance or fiancée...

You need a friend...

You love loving...

You don't just want to walk down to the altar with a husband or wife that is not your friend...

Forget religion...
Forget spirituality...
Forget speaking in tongues...

You know you need a friend...
A Friend that can give you the feeling that you are important to everyday of his life...

And not ashamed to announce to the world that you are an integral part of his everyday realizations...

You are tired of being in relationships where you have to keep saying 'I am sorry' more than 'I love you' ...

Too many explanations, while the emotions are dying ...

Your greatest desire is someone that will compliment you...

I wrote all these things to tell you that
God will bring that person ...

If the person in your life is not the person God prepared for you... May something happen this week that will sperate you both...

No matter what will follow, may it break...

So that there will be space for the real person to come...

When I was not born again, I had such relationship ...

Now that you are born again, you should have some more...

Because 'thy heavenly father knows that you have need of these things'

I trust God with you, that before the end of this year, you will be living with that person...

Not as boyfriends and girlfriends...
Not even as future wives and future husbands...

But as legally married couple...

Some one might take it as a joke...
But someone else might take it as a prayer...

Because I see it happening to someone on this page now...

By ending of August, this year you will be reading our posts with your spouse ...

Apostle Lifted Nwokeoma