A toothache led me to the love of my life

What you need to know:

First love is always fiery and intense and most couples never forget the early days of their relationship or what we like to call, ‘how they met’. Rubina had a toothache and went to see Geoffrey, a dental hygienist and it has been 23 years of love.

Watching Geoffrey and Rubina interact, one might be fooled into thinking that they are dating or newly-weds. The chemistry still seems so fresh more than 19 years into their marriage. The story of how they met is interesting.
How they met
One morning, 23 years ago, Rubina was working as a dental hygienist when Geoffrey who was having a bad toothache came in for a root canal.
He was afraid of the procedure and the then 18-year-old Rubina held his hand to calm him.
he knew that he was up to something when he came for the next part of the procedure four days later and he insisted that she attend to him. Soon after, she left this job and they lost contact. When he bumped into her six months later, he made it clear that he wasn’t taking any chances with her and made sure that she took him to her new workstation where he would regularly drop in on her. It didn’t take long for her to see that he was a good man.

Commitment
“I was raised in a strict Muslim home. I hadn’t heard of couples dating. Usually, you met, went home to the parents, got married and only came to know each other in marriage. When I told Geoffrey this he was shocked,” she recalls their first hurdle. Her parents were concerned that their daughter who was barely out of her teens was spending a lot of time with a man they didn’t know.
Geoffrey on the other hand was afraid that if he showed up at their home, they would force him to marry her on the spot yet he wasn’t ready to take on that commitment.
Unable to withstand the pressure, they broke up and she moved to Mombasa.
Getting hitched
It took only a month without her for him to realise that he couldn’t bear to lose her. He called her and told her that he was ready to marry her.
“Just as he had predicted, we got married that very weekend that I took him to meet my parents. He got a Muslim name and we exchanged our vows. All he wanted was to not lose me,” she smiles at the memory. Three months later, in March 1997, they had a bigger wedding celebration to let all their friends and family know that they were together.

Lessons
The most valuable lesson that she has learnt in their 23 years of marriage is that things like religion and tribe shouldn’t matter in love. That if there is friendship and commitment, a couple will always find a middle ground.
“We have an amazing relationship. I know that whatever happens, he will not abandon me,” she says.
Adapted from Daily Nation