Olivia, will you mother my children, grow old with me? Marry me!

My name is Emmanuel Tugume. I met the love of my life, Ms Olivia Katusiime, around mid 2013. Her family had moved into our neighbourhood. She was smart, with a cheeky laugh and an enchanting smile. She was and still is a woman in step with fashion and style. I can vividly remember our first chat; it must have been the very next day after they moved in. I was curious to know who the new people were.

I had not spent a long time in the same neighbourhood myself, so I organised to have a fellowship for our neighbourhood, but also as a way for us to get to know each other. It was through these meetings that we held once a week, that I came to know her more. I must say, however, that she kept to herself most of the time and didn’t open up much during the sessions. It would later emerge that she was seeing someone, our relationship then was platonic and basic, you could say we were “Hi friends”.

I also had my interests somewhere else, until a time around the turn of the year when I realised that my person of interest was not yielding much. Unknown to me, she (Olivia) was also going through the same, so once in a while, we would meet and chat about stuff, business, work, our sad state of affairs and life in general, and through this she became more open and slowly we became good friends. Meanwhile, I had made up mind that if I were to ever be happy, I had to win this girl’s heart, it was to be no mean feat. She was basically everything I was looking for, our dreams and interests seemed to be the same, she was so accommodative and above all, supportive. More often, it felt like she was the only one who knew me and what I was going through.

Knowing what ministry means to me, sometimes she would be the only one who turned up for our Saturday fellowships and a few times we had fellowship only the two of us. Her support in the ministry earned her a special place in my heart.
The more she resisted my advances, the more I became more determined to win her heart, and yet through all this, she was careful not to hurt my feelings, she maintained a rare type of mutual respect. I was later to learn that she changed her mind about giving love a chance around the Easter period when we had visited my brother for the celebrations. Today, I write this special message for her.

To you my beloved, Olivia Katusiime

You are a rare jewel
You are the proverbial virtuous woman
You are the most beautiful of them all
I love your smile, your eyes, but much more, the inner you

You have reminded me of the teen sweet love songs
And loved me against all odds, and I mean all odds
With my rough edges, and risky adventures
You have loved me still

My promise to you is love and ‘happiness’
And yet, I pray that Christ be my keeper
For I am just a man, who falls today and rises tomorrow
I love you Olivia Katusiime

I ask then,
Will you have children with me?
Will you grow old with me?
Will you face this world with me?
OLIVIA KATUSIIME, WILL YOU MARRY ME?