Ocom still shocked she loved him even when he had no car, big house

She is a God-fearing, hardworking and fun loving accountant who also enjoys singing, playing the piano, crocheting and travelling. 

Moreen Orishaba is also fascinated by art.

Her love for art led her to an artist. When she met Adonias Ocom for the first time, he asked to be her friend. There and then, she sensed friendship was only a ploy for more.

“I felt like he wanted more than just friendship. I remember the intensity and the tenderness of his voice when he was asking to become my friend and I knew he wanted more,” she recalls.

Prior to his request, she secretly admired him; a funny, talkative and caring man who, before her eyes, was a carefree spirit who wore tyre sandals commonly known as ‘Lugabire’ on the evenings he went to visit her.

Orishaba enjoyed his company but politely told him she was not ready for a relationship. She requested him to give her more time. One day he went to her church and told her his real intentions.

He asked her to start a committed relationship with him but she requested him for more time to pray about it. After a few months of praying, she professed her love to him and thereafter, their relationship blossomed.

That was on August 15, 2017.

The man she fell in love with, she says is very curious, with a very broad taste for the arts, music and nature generally.  He is also interested in travelling, artefacts and dogs.

Planting of seeds

“I do love to have great company, funny conversations but I also enjoy deeply spiritual and historical conversations. I paint, draw, take photographs and make sculptures for a living. I also engage in other money generating business such as tree planting and agro-produce business,” he shares.

Her level of focus, hard work, intellect and the ease with which the two connected made him commit to her.

“She shares a lot of things in common with me and this helped our bond to grow stronger because we shared a lot of similar views about a lot of things and issues,” he adds.

She challenges him very many times in a lot of discussions and it makes him happy because he knows someone from who he can seek good counsel. The passion she has for the arts is amazing and she is his number one marketer and supporter of his art works.

His search for love did not take miles. She used to live in the same neighbourhood where his studio is located. He would watch her from his window and left in awe of her beauty.

“She has such a graceful walk, with an air of confidence. Out of interest I approached her one evening, we had a small chat and exchanged phone numbers,” the artist recollects.

On her birthday, he surprised her with a proposal. He had some friends at his place so he tricked her into visiting him so that he would take her out for dinner. When she opened the door to enter his house, he was there down on his knee with the ring in his hand.

His friends jumped out from the bedroom screaming, ‘say yes, say yes’.

She said ‘yes’. For a moment, she was lost for words because her mind was knocked out of her body.

“It was the happiest day of my life. My lips were trembling as I said yes,” she recounts. She was confident he was the one.

She adds, “Dating showed me that it is the responsibility of a couple to mould their love relationship into what they want it to be. It taught me how to be a patient and tolerant woman. The love and affection he had shown me for the past four years was convincing enough for me to say yes,” she shares.

Love and affection

Her love for him had grown stronger in that she was eagerly waiting for the day he would propose. In him, she found the qualities of a husband she truly desired to have.

After he proposed and she said yes, they had a small cosy proposal party. She slept happily that night because she had found someone who was ready to show her love and affection.

“My husband teaches me about various things such as his traditional food, his mother tongue Ateso and I also teach him about my culture. We pray together and actively support each other’s career choices. I do help my husband to prime his canvases for his paintings and also work as a muse for his works. My husband also supports my other career choices such as accounting and he encourages me to also pursue my talents such as singing and crocheting,” the happy wife shares.

She also adds, “We have a dream of building a music and art school and we are looking at buying a 20-acre piece of land where we shall build our school. We have a dream of travelling and touring around the world. Having a healthy, happy family and obviously having children. With good saving habits, good planning and investing wisely we shall attain our dreams.”

Luckiest woman, happiest man

On June 9, 2021, Ocom walked Orishaba down the aisle. The moment her husband gave her the ring, her heart raced in ecstasy because she saw real love in his eyes. “The words he said melted sweetly into my heart. They were so soft and clear. I felt like the luckiest woman in the world,” she says. Ocom says his wife has taught him that love is patient, tolerant and forgiving, and importantly, that it is possible to have love without money.

“I got to know that love comes before money as opposed to what the society preaches. Most girls will only love you because you have money. My wife loved me even when I did not have much,”he says proudly.

He adds, “I struggled to accept that a beautiful girl can love a man even when he does not have a car, a big house. She taught me that love should be realistic and not what is portrayed in movies.” His most memorable thing was the first Valentine’s Day they celebrated together, and the gifts they shared together. The other touching memory was when he took his wife home to meet his parents.

“She was going to kneel for mother and my mother quickly scooped her from the ground and gave her a big hug. What a joy I felt. My wife is an accountant so she helps me when it comes to planning and how we need to invest. She is also a talented singer, pianist and crochet artist so we share a lot of knowledge and ideas in our work,” he says. The couple enjoys watching movies together, playing and learning musical instruments together. They love taking walks together and occasionally paint together. “We also love to tell each other our life stories from childhood, growing up and also share jokes. Sometimes we play music in our house and dance until we sweat. Life as newlyweds is quite exciting because we can now freely enjoy each other’s company. It’s also a continuous school of learning because the truth is you cannot exhaustedly know each other in and out. There is a new experience once in a while,” he adds. He’s got his wisest advice from his father; be patient and tolerant to be with each other and get someone you feel excited to see all the time.