Dare I say it was a miracle, have you ever been at your lowest where you didn’t know how life would go on, I was in a hospital bed barely a month after my amputation and a friend of my mum from back in the days in Kaduna, sent her daughter to condone and also visit, yes they condoned, It was a shock to most. Anyways after the visit, she said  “that reminds me my brother has been asking for your numbers for some years now” I knew aunty had 10 kids 5boys, 5girls, but that was about it, I said “which one?” she said “Tochi”, I said “I don’t know which he is” but I said she shouldn’t worry let her give me his number when I call him I’d get all the rest of the 9 kids numbers, she wrote it on a piece of paper, and I took it and she left.

I believe it was a week later I had just finished praying my rosary, and using my bible daily devotional “DAILY STRENGTH DEVOTIONAL” It just entered my spirit to call his number “Tochi” so I picked up and dialed it was so noisy when he picked I heard “guy I dey play game I no even know say my phone dey ring” I said “how you go know sey e dey ring when that place dey hala like that” his voiced changed very harsh and he said “WHO IS THIS?” I said “ahh wetin you dey change voice for, abeg na Uchenna Oj….” Before I could finish my sentence he started shouting, “it’s a lie, it’s a lie, it’s a lie…” I said “wait its Uche oj…” “I know its Uche Ojukwu na” I said “why you come deys shout?” I was honestly amused, he said he can’t believe that he has searched for me for so long.

That was it we started talking and 5 days later he asked me on Whatsapp to marry him, that it had always been me, I’m like 17 years ago was when we left Kaduna, how can it be me? We were tiny kids, I didn’t even know which bro. Francis son you were, I thought he was joking, here I am in my early thirties after all the heartbreaks and abandonment always coz I was SS, with my complete body and now I’m an amputee out of a job and looking so sick and he says I should marry him? suffice to say I thought he was joking at first but as the weeks went by I realized he wasn’t then I thought he was crazy, is he normal? But I fell in love right there in that hopeless place; yeah I found love in a hopeless place! But I was so damaged inside myself I believed I wasn’t worthy of love, so when I was discharged in august he was set to come to Enugu from Kaduna to ask my father for my hand in marriage, I wouldn’t let him, why you may ask, because I strongly and deeply believed if he took one look at me, he would turn right around and whether I admitted it or not, I was so madly deeply and hopelessly in love with him. After all I had lost, I doubt I could survive losing this angel that saved me from depression and made me hope and feel again. He wouldn’t stop begging me to believe him, that he would prove to the world as much as to me he loves me and would never hurt me. I was in a quagmire because I felt the pain and longing in his voice, my fear kept me saying no to his coming for three months and then I could take it no longer, I did only what I could I went to the chapel and knelt before the Blessed sacrament and did a novena, I prayed “Oh my God you know my heart I love this man, and he says he loves him but I’m afraid so I surrender because your word says you haven’t given us the spirit of fear. May your will be done” and then I told him he could come, and come he did.

23^rd November was the date, 6:15 pm was the time and he did not run away at the sight of me in crutches, no he smiled and hugged me and told the driver I was his wife, “isn’t she beautiful?” he asked “yes she is” the guy said….then he refused to bath or eat till he saw my father and ask for permission to marry me… Well, it was like a dream, and a dream it still feels till now. I felt like Cinderella, belle, snow white, Elsa, and all the fairy tale princesses! In my heart, I said “thank you God you are faithful.

24^th November 2017: A day after he came and got daddy’s blessing to take me as a wife, we go on our first ever date, my favorite spot KFC at food court at polo mall, I was so happy, I was just looking at him and I knew deep down within me “I finally found someone, to share my life with…in fact this is it”…and we were done, laughing and snapping pictures, and he says he wants to buy something, I said ok GAME stores, we go in he tells me, let me drop your bag just go pick the body spray, well I could tell the story, but the picture would tell the story better…

What the world didn’t hear was what he said to me as we danced to John Legends “all of me” he said “I TOLD YOU I WOULD PROVE TO YOU IT DOESN’T MATTER THAT YOU DO NOT HAVE A LEG!” And he did, my Leo did. Made the cover of the Sickle Cell News & World report journal…my Knight in shining amour…thinking about it brings a smile to me J

Long story short on 10th February 2018 we got wedded even though I had double pneumonia I was the happiest woman in the world!

 I healed shortly after and the rest they say is history.

That my warriors, was how a prayer of 10 years yes I said it right, I started praying for my life partner 10 years before I found him, what is yours may tarry I cannot be denied, I’m living proof of that it isn’t about your hips or thighs it’s about being virtuous and strong and prayerful and having the gift of perseverance from the Holy Spirit. That is all I can say, for now, the rest more detailed stories is coming with my second book “I THRIVED: OVERCOMING THE WORST THING THAT CAN HAPPEN”

Written by: BARR (MRS.) UCHENNA STELLA KINGSLEY-ONYILOHA