He Fell in Love After 10 Years
A true story of love, patience, and sacrifice
Do you believe in the phrase, “Good things come to those who wait?”
Well, it depends on, ‘how long one must wait?’, and ‘how good is that?’
For a person like me, it is almost impossible to wait for anything until I’m compelled to wait, for whatever reason. However, that reason has to be strong enough to overcome my impatient nature.
Today, I want to share with you the incredible story of love, faith, and sacrifice of the most patient person I have met — my aunt.
It all started when my aunt (my mother’s younger sister) got married in July 1996.
I base this story on what I have heard from my elders because as I was only 5-years-young (learned this way from here by a very kind Writer friend) at that time, I do not have my own memory of the facts.
Background information
My aunt was the youngest of four siblings and hence the most pampered one. She had a slightly dark complexion, unlike my mother who is fair. Back then in 20th century, a girl with a dark complexion faced a problem (I think it still is) finding a good match in India.
My maternal grandparents were worried because of this. My maternal uncle took my aunt to a renowned beauty parlour to change her skin tone. It took her three sittings to bring out the lighter tone of her face.
Once her complexion got lighter, they got her clicked to present the picture to the boy’s family during discussions related to her marriage.
They finally found and liked a boy for her. ‘This boy was tall, fair and handsome’, they described. The boy was shown a picture of my aunt and he liked her too.
So everything was settled. My aunt and her husband-to-be liked each other’s photos. The Families got along well too.
The D Day
It was the wedding day. All preparations were done to a T. Everyone was ready to welcome the guests from the groom’s side. It suddenly started raining cats and dogs.
All the arrangements were destroyed. There was water everywhere. 75% of the dinner was wasted because it was an open-air celebration. By the time they could cover anything, most of it was wasted already.
The rain also materially affected the groom's family’s journey to the wedding venue. They had to travel 4 hours by car to reach the wedding venue, which was my Maternal grandparents' house.
This total mess already pissed off the groom. They finally arrived and the wedding happened. It was the day after the wedding when all the drama started.
The weather did not stop raining on everyone’s parade and neither did my new uncle. He was angry and was yelling at everyone for silly things.
After being asked several times, he finally spoke about what his problem was. Everyone was shocked listening to what he said.
He said,
I have been cheated. This is not same girl whose photo was shown to me. I liked the one whose photo was shown to me.
Worse yet, to everyone’s surprise, he said, he liked my mother more and that he would like to marry her.
He was safe after saying this because my father was not there. Unfortunately, he had to attend his nephew’s wedding where I accompanied my father.
Anyhow, there was a lot of drama and stress and finally, my aunt left with him to his house.
New day, New struggle
They reached my uncle’s home the next morning. My uncle’s sisters escorted my aunt to her bedroom.
She changed her wedding attire and was about to go to bed when she heard her husband’s voice, “Stop! You can’t sleep here on my bed with me”.
She was shocked and couldn’t process what she heard. She asked, “What?”
After 5 minutes, the story became clear. He didn’t accept her as his wife. He said that he was defrauded and later forced to accept her and that he doesn’t and wouldn’t accept her as his wife ever.
She was devastated. She cried for hours and later slept on the couch.
When she got up after a few hours of sleep, she didn’t find him in the room. So she came out of the bedroom to look for him only to find out that he had already left for another city where he worked.
He lived in a bigger city and had his business there. My aunt was at his parent’s house in the village.
My aunt’s in-laws were very kind and loving to her. They apologised for their son’s behaviour and asked her if she wanted to go back to her parents and break the marriage.
She declined and said that she would rather die than go back. That’s what girls were taught in those times in India,
“Once you get married, you only come out of your husband’s house after you DIE!”
She said, if they accept her then she would live with them in their village and be like their daughter instead of daughter-in-law.
Turning point
She lived with her in-laws for about 9 years. Her husband would come once a year to meet his parents. He would not talk to her and also would not let her touch any of his belongings.
In those 9 years, she never went to her parent’s house even after they tried multiple times to bring her back from that place, saying:
“When they married me to such a man without verifying his nature and everything else, then let me handle this situation the way I want.”
She was in love with her Husband despite him treating her so badly. She never uttered a single word of complaint.
In fact, she would say,
“He is right and his reaction is natural. He has actually been cheated by showing my photo for which I went to beauty parlour several times. That photo was not real. It was not the real me in that photo.
He is a good looking and charming man. He deserved a lot better partner than me.”
She used to say that she would wait forever to receive love from her husband.
And then, the universe heard her. It was her time now, after 9 and a half years of marriage.
My uncle, unfortunately, met with an accident while going to work and broke his leg. He was all alone there and it was getting difficult for him to do daily chores with his broken leg.
Love finds its way
My aunt’s parents-in-law asked her to go to her husband in the city and take care of him as he needed his wife.
My aunt was dying to go to him and take care of him because she was distressed from the time she heard of his accident.
She finally reached her husband’s house in the city. He was lying on the bed with no change in his attitude. He was still furious about the fact that she came there.
He asked her angrily not to come close to him. But deep inside, he knew he needed her support at that time. So he did not push her so much when she took care of him.
As time passed by, he slowly started realising his mistake and started improving his behaviour toward her.
For example, he would not scold her for everything she did. He would ask her to have dinner together with him.
In six months' time, he recovered from the injury and my aunt was both happy and sad. Happy that her husband recovered and sad that she would have to go back as there was no reason left to stay there.
She packed her bag with a heavy heart when her husband informed her that he got her return ticket to the village. She was upset and it could be clearly seen in her eyes.
The next evening my uncle said he would come with her to drop her at the village. They both went to the railway station. She was a little satisfied that at least her husband is accompanying her to the village.
With these mixed feelings, she got on the train with her husband.
It took her around an hour to realise it was not the same train that would take them to their village.
She was confused and asked her husband hesitantly, “Where are we going? This is not the same train we were supposed to take.”
He replied in a serious tone, “We are going for our HONEYMOON!” He smiled and hugged her. He apologised to her for being so rude all these years and not recognising her kindness and love.
He was sorry that he only worried about her external beauty and failed to see her extremely beautiful soul.
My aunt was all into tears. She couldn’t believe she was finally experiencing all her desires. She was so happy.
This was somewhere in 2006.
They are happily living together since then until today.
Together they have two wonderful kids: A 16-year-old daughter and a 14-year-old son.
Her story of patience and sacrifice is popular in my mother’s and my aunt’s villages is known to even youngest minds.
Parting words
As they say,
Love conquers all!!
I don’t know how often this is true, but it did prove true in my aunt’s case. All her love, patience, and hard work did not go in vain. She reaped what she had sown in all those tough years.
That’s a Wrap!
If you liked this story, you might also like:
- A tragic saga that turned my friend into A man of Suspicious Character
- A love letter that a 14-year-old me wrote!
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