True love is in short supply nowadays which is why stories such as this are touching and an inspiration as they make one believe that perhaps there’s still some love left in the world.
A Benue pastor, Kwaor Timothy, got married to his wife, Ruth Umdurgh in the hospital as Ruth had fractured her legs in an accident which occurred just a day to the date originally set for the wedding.
The pair, both 21, met in 2017 and had set the date for their marriage on the 3rd of March 2018, but on the 2nd, Ruth who wanted to get some last minute supplies for the wedding was involved in an accident that left both her legs fractured.
But Timothy didn’t care and went ahead with the wedding even though the venue was now changed and it had to take place at the Benue State University Teaching Hospital.
Telling her story to PUNCH News, Ruth said; “I went to Makurdi for last-minute shopping, to get all the things left for the wedding like souvenirs. I had bought all the items and could have taken my time to return to Daudu but my hairdresser kept on calling me to come and complete my hairdo. I did not complete that before going to Makurdi, so I decided to take Okada (commercial motorcycle) to be able to meet up. On the way, I had an accident.
“The accident occurred at a police checkpoint and I was on the motorcycle taking me back to Daudu. At the checkpoint, we were asked to stop and we were in the process of stopping when another motorcycle rammed into ours. The motorcyclist that hit us was trying to avoid being hit by a speeding articulated vehicle.
“The accident occurred around 11am on Friday, March 2, 2018, a day to our wedding, which was supposed to take place at the Charismatic Renewal Ministry Church in Daudu on Saturday, March 3, 2018.”
Timothy refused to reschedule the wedding but instead went ahead with it to the joy of Ruth.
Timothy on his part said that there was nothing that would stop him from marrying her and that he had to call relatives and guests to notify them as to the change in venue.
He said, “On Friday morning, she called to tell me that she was in Makurdi to buy some things she had told me she wanted to buy. And in that period, we were calling each other and later, she told me that she had done with the shopping and was already returning to Daudu.
“Then shortly after, I called her but her phone kept ringing. Later, when someone picked up, I could hear her crying in the background. Something told me that there had been an accident; then the person that picked up the phone told me about the accident and mentioned the place.
“Initially, what came to my mind was – why – but I quickly mustered courage because it was God who asked me to marry her when I was searching for a wife. I told God and He directed me to her in the midst of many ladies around. When I heard about the accident, I told God that you did not tell me that I was going to marry a dead person, so I made up my mind that whatever her condition was, as long as she was still alive, I would go ahead and marry her.
“That was my decision and I went straight there. And shortly after, I got to the scene of the accident. The moment she saw me, she screamed, and there and then, I told her that tomorrow we are getting married and she replied by saying amen. So I persuaded her to muster courage and from there, I moved her to the teaching hospital in Makurdi. But before going to the hospital, we reported the incident at a police station nearby.”
He also narrated how the wedding location wasn’t a problem once the people called understood the circumstances.
“When they all saw my courage, they also helped in telling people about what happened and that the wedding would still hold. Initially, I thought of moving her out of the hospital to have the wedding outside, but I realised that her condition was very terrible because she had multiple fractures and could not stand. And also, the hospital management said it would not allow her to be moved out of the hospital in that condition. That was when we decided to have the wedding in the hospital with the permission of the management.
“Actually, using the hospital as the wedding venue was not really a problem for me, but her situation and I thought that if we cancelled the wedding, it might worsen her condition. In fact, I was happy that the hospital management permitted us to hold the wedding there.”
While Timothy endured and was happy about the marriage, he also had to suffer loneliness as the reception still held as planned but without his wife in attendance. Some of the traditional things done at the wedding reception such as the couple’s frist dance and the cutting of the cake all had to be scrapped, also there has been no consummation of the marriage as Timothy has been shuttling between the hospital and home.
There’s also the problem of finances as according to Timothy, “They are taking care of the wounds and it is after that that they will attend to the fractures and the major problem now is fund because the bill there is running to N300,000.”