Daffodils

He started the process all over again
Twelve years after he thought he was done with it
He was very reluctant to take the step
But it was the most logical thing to do
To get himself a wife!
Not only because he was a Pastor
But also because he was a man in need of a companion
Catering for five children was quite challenging
His wife died four years after their fifth child was born
She died at the age of forty!
He still couldn't say precisely what killed his wife
He was far away in the east
Working with a Federal Government Parastatal 
She was in the west with the children
He travelled home unfailingly every weekend
One weekend he was home
He took the whole family to see a movie an Saturday
They all went to church on Sunday
He flew back to his station first thing on Monday morning
By Monday night, he got the call
She was dead!
He flew back home
Hoping to do as Jesus commanded believers
When he got to the hospital
His wife's family members were already there
They told him they have paid and made all the arrangements 
in his absence
They want to take her remains home to their village for burial
He was too dazed to argue with them
His intention flew out of the window
He was allowed to see her remains for some minutes
She was packed up and gone the very next moment
He was at the burial later that day
He didn't understand what the hurry was all about
But they have accused him of nothing
That alone was a great relief
He had seen how other families accused their daughter's 
spouse or son's spouse of having a hand in the deceased 
death out of spite
He was grateful he wasn't subjected to anything like that!
The doctor's told him she died of a heart attack
They said it was sudden, brutal and fast!
His life almost collapsed!
But he found the strength to cope in Christ
He placed the older children in a boarding school
His mother had to relocate to the city to help
him with the younger children
He had so many questions but...
Life didn't wait
Day came, night came, a year
Day came, night came, two years
His mother told him to get another wife
She said didn't have the strength to chase 
children anymore
He got the message
But where would he start from?
He had been advised to seek out a widow
or a very matured and unmarried single lady
The question is "From where"
Some of his colleagues with ladies fitting
that description had tacitly reached out
He had a lot of things to consider
His children were the very first
His people have an adage "Someone else's eyes
is not as good as one's eyes"
"Someone else's children are not as
important as one's own children"
If he marries another woman, she would want
to have her own children!
He had five already and he didn't want more
If he married a widow who had children already
Those children will also become his children
If he married a widow who didn't have any children 
before, there are no guarantees that the children will
take to her!
He was forty-two and was deemed too young to remain 
single by the church authority!
He decided to take it a step at a time!
Find the woman, start the relationship and see where
the tree will fall!
The first woman he met had three children
She was a widow who lost her husband to a car crash
on the Lagos-Ibadan expressway
She was also in the car with him when it happened
Somehow, she and the children survived the accident
without any injuries
But her husband died of internal bleeding complications
They met at the bank
She was an accountant and he had to transact some business
with her on behalf of his organization
She was jovial, lively and a very good Christian
They exchanged numbers and started calling each other
Somehow it turned them to teenagers
He didn't like the type of love they were having
It was strong, uninhibited, uncontrolled and mesmerizing
He was a man of God! A Pastor! 
A decent man
But every time he was with her....
Fire! Fire!! Fire!!! Fire!!!! Fire!!!!
In the car, at forty-two, Fire!!!!!!!!!
in the room, she was thirty-eight, Fire!!!!!!!!!
Her legs couldn't close, his gear kept shifting
Her blouse couldn't button, his mouth kept guzzling 
Her late husband left her quite well off
She has no plan of getting married
She only wanted a companion, someone to help 
her with her "needs"
He was by no means poor but she wouldn't consider
anything more than the physical between them
Whenever they were meeting, she wouldn't bother with undies
She wouldn't even care if people were watching or not
She said she had paid her dues in full when her husband died
The only regret she had was caging the tiger 
while her husband was alive
But now, she lets the tiger loose with reckless abandon
He couldn't get enough of her
For one year, she squeezed him of every drop of pleasure
And he milked her of everything she had to off
He married his late wife as a virgin
He kept to the rules of engagement to the last
He never ever made love to another woman until he got married
He never cheated on his wife after he got married
He thought he had earned the right to the "Holy of Holies"
He was a "mere" Christian at the time (In C. S. Lewis' voice)
Now as a senior pastor, he forgot all about decency
She made him carnal and sinful
He enjoyed every bit of it
His mother thought he was still mourning his late wife
His mother piled on the pressure
"Get yourself a wife!"
He couldn't tell anybody why he wasn't interested in anything
serious
What would he say?
"I am sleeping with a woman who doesn't want to get married?"
It would betray his selfishness
He had put his carnal needs ahead of his mother's welfare,
his children's welfare and the church!
She told him she would be relocating abroad out of the blue
They had made love as usual and were planning to do
a second more daring round when she announced it
He didn't know whether to heave a sigh of relief or to cry
He took it as a cue to enjoy whatever time they had together
And that was that
She relocated two weeks later!
He decided it was time to be serious!
A month later as he was driving to church on a sunday morning
he met two ladies
One of them attended his parish for the first time the previous 
Sunday, he gave them a lift 
After service, he met with them in his office
They were both friends
The one he met the previous Sunday was married
The new one that was with her was a widow
He could see that they had discussed him
He could sense that it was a matchmaking endeavour
He didn't mind! 
She exchanged numbers with the widow
They started exchanging social calls
She was a woman of faith and she was full of the 
Holy Spirit. He started warming up to her
He eventually asked her out
They had two dinner dates before she felt comfortable 
enough to tell him everything about herself
She said she got married two years before her young
family won the American Visa lottery
They had spent exactly a year and a month in America 
when her husband abandoned her for another woman
She was devastated
They were yet to have a child and she found the 
challenge too difficult to cope with in a strange land
Some of the friends she met there were club girls
She started following them to the club
She needed to escape from the reality of loneliness and pain
She got into drugs, alcohol and eventually sex
All forms of sex with all sorts of people
She was able to make money to pay her bills and keep up 
with the lifestyle
She kept on with that way of life until she fell into depression
Things became much worse at that point
She stopped feeling anything and wanted to start feeling again
She stepped up her drug habit
Started taking crack cocaine
Anal sex and all sort of perversions followed
Eventually, she got into a jam with the law
It was a serious case involving two dead clients
Someone paid her bond
She got bailed
She went home, picked her passport 
and ran back to her country
As soon as she got to her country, the depression cleared
Even the drug habit lost its hold
She had no connection to that lifestyle anymore
She settled down and started a business
She had saved quite a nest egg from her 
tango with "prostitution"
Seven months after she returned home
She got the news that her husband had been shot 
dead by the woman he ran away with
She had stopped loving him years before and the news
was a relief unto her
She had decided to get married again and she wouldn't
mind a widower with children who fears God
She has no intention of having her own children
The only challenge she had was with her body
She had contracted a strange disease which necessitated
that she wore adult diapers 
It was diagnosed as severe anal fissure initially but 
it had defied all forms of treatment
Surgery had been recommended but she couldn't afford it
unless wants to go homeless and penniless by
spending all her capital
She was trusting God for a miracle!
He nodded in understanding, gave her his handkerchief 
when she cried
The rest of the evening was quite enjoyable
She paid the live band to sing an old tune and they danced
gleefully
They parted ways that night on a very amorous note
He was determined more than ever to settle the marriage 
thing and move on
When he got home he got on his knees and prayed!
After three days, he made the most important phone call
of his life!
The phone rang and h presented his offer of a lifetime!
The voice on the other end said "Let me think this through"
Three months later, his partner in sin relocated back home
 from Canada
A few weeks later, he married her!

PS: This story happened in Lagos, Nigeria
The couple have been married for fifteen years now
They have eight children (Five from him and his previous marriage),
(Three from her and her previous marriage)
He said he realised that she was the very best God gave to her
He just lacked the wisdom to handle her or make her
do the right thing with him
But listening to the story of the other woman
steeled his resolve to pursue life and love 
He didn't want to marry a second time and have regrets
or second thoughts!
He had to get it right!