THE CONGRUENCE
Written by Lanre Olagbaju
Episode 31
I knew it meant something and it suggested a kind of bad omen but I wasn’t sure who to talk to, so I called my mum. She said I should start praying that nothing would hinder me from getting that which God had for me. She promised to also join me in prayers and that she would talk to her pastor about it.
My birthday was coming, it fell on a weekend and Folahan suggested we celebrated it in Lagos.
Why? His siblings were coming home and he wanted to use that opportunity to introduce me to his parents and family at large. He had bought us tickets and we would be staying at their house in Ikoyi.
It was a little overwhelming for me…with the things I had heard about the family and the seeming societal status mismatch.
Although I had worked very hard to build my self-esteem…but that’s me.
Folahan knew my background and loved me all the same, but that’s him. I had talked to all of his siblings on the phone and even met the one in Nigeria when she came to Abuja, but it’s not just about them.
“What if his mum was the obnoxious type and made me feel like a ‘nobody’?”It’s normal to ask questions about family, growing up and all of that at such meetings. My Elder brother (one of the twins) lost his girlfriend the day he met the girl’s parents.
They were not all that better off than my family but they still felt he was undeserving of their daughter and she could do better than a barber. The girl’s father did not mince words…
”When she said you were an entrepreneur, I didn’t know she meant a barber. No member of my family has ever been or married a barber and we are not about to lay that precedence”
That was the end of the 3-year relationship and my brother was still trying to recover from the heartbreak.
It isn’t unusual for rich parents, especially mothers, to be picky about the family background and status of whomever their children were marrying.
I didn’t do a good job with hiding my fears and Folahan sensed it. He had always coached me to walk with the confidence of ‘how far God had brought’ me and not just where he brought me from.
“They won’t bite you
I already talked to my mum about you, severally, and she is thrilled to meet you
I may have been born with a silver spoon but my folks were not, they worked hard to become who and what they are today…so they know what it’s like to come from a humble background.
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