SUCH A BEAUTIFUL STORY

Rube and Sara got married in high school. Rube was 17 and Sara was 15.  So very young for such huge commitment, but they were very much in love, and remained in love ever since. In the estate where we grew up, everyone called them Darling, including us kids. This was because they always address themselves with the same abbreviation.  “.....Darling could you help me with that cup over there on the sink,’ Rube would ask. “Oh no Darling, the new curtain is completely ruined”, Sara would cry. But you could always tell if it was Darling Sara or Darling Rube that spoke, for they both had quiet distinct voices.

Darling Rube had soft musical voice that had grown even softer with age. In contrast, Darling Sara talked with a Sharp rasping voice that sounded quit alive and youthful, despite the fact that she was already pushing eighty. You could hear her rasping voice all the way from the balcony of our house.

For the first first five years of my life, I lived under the presumption that they were twins, not until Frank told me they weren’t. “They are husband and wife.” he assured me, “because twins don’t marry.”  Why? I wanted to know, but Frank only shrugged. I could tell he didn’t know the reason any better than I did. But those days, my big brother never admitted ignorance.

My mother said they had been married for sixty years , and in all those years they had lived without a fight , not even as much as  an argument. Dad only laughed. Of course it was and an exaggeration, but he agreed that Rube and Sara’s love story was something out of the ordinarily. It is such a beautiful story, he had admitted.

The Darling’s are long dead and gone now, but trough the course on my growing up, I found out much more about their story, along with some parts that I wouldn’t have considered very nice when I was five. Here are some of the hurdles of life they were able to overcome and come out strong in the end.

Darling Rube and Darling Sara both grew up in a small orphanage.  Rube’s parents had died in a construction site accident when he was only two years old, but nothing was known about Sara’s folks.  She was just a little baby girl found at a refuse dump.  Each time Rube lamented the fact that none of his parent relatives cared enough to take him in when his parent were killed, Sara was quick to remind him she didn’t even have any relatives to be cross with, kind or unkind. Rube would laugh, and say, “ but we have each other now.”  They both had very good reasons to be unhappy or despondent but they chose to be happy instead, and their entire life was such a beautiful story.

The first few years after they got married, they had so little money, so they had to live in a single room apartment below an eatery. Rube worked as a butler while Sara worked as an attendant in the eatery. They could only take their bath and freshen up only in the evening after the eatery had closed.  They couldn’t afford the fancy foods that they liked but they kept themselves amused by pretending that they owned the eatery. Not too long after, they not only bought over the eatery but also owned many other top restaurants in the city. They retired rich, and life was ever so beautiful for them.

In the eleventh year of their marriage, Sara was involved in an auto accident that left her with a weak heart and a Limp. She withdrew into herself as a result and became obese soon after. Rube tried to talk her out of the depression but when his effort failed he sought professional help. Through the encouragement of the therapist, they both enrolled for a psychotherapy program. Rube didn’t really need the session at that time but he enrolled and walked the whole mile every evening to encourage her. They both continued to work out, long after Sara was certified fit. The reward was indeed awesome, for at 70, they both looked young and happy as though they were in their thirties.

 I could go on and on. They were able to overcome the loss of their home and all their properties during a fire incident and the death of their first son who was born terribly deformed. Though not without lots of hurdles like every one encounter at different stages in their life, theirs was such a beautiful story, and all they achieved was through cheer determination.

 The take home for me in all these is that if Sara and Rube could be happy, healthy, and successful despite their clumsy beginnings, anyone can. I have taken the time to analyse and appropriate the success and happiness principles they applied (albeit unwittingly), and its already working for me.  I am grown now and have my life well ahead of me, but I could tell already that life is beautiful. 

By Onyinye orabuike