Happy Birthday to my best friend

 Happy birthday to my dearest Betty also known as Onita or Mai Denny  

I first saw this beauty in early 1999. One evening on my way home from work, I boarded the Chawasarira Bus from Harare City Centre to Chitungwiza. I happened to sit next to this beauty; she was sleeping half the journey. At first, I was scared to talk to her and then I was like what do I have to lose? I even tried to impress you with my newly acquired 3^rd hand Ericson cellphone by phoning my mother’s home from my newly acquired Econet prepaid Buddie line and you were not impressed. Luckily you still gave me a chance, by the time you disembarked from the bus, I had your CABS head office work number and I had also given you my office telephone number at Eagle Insurance company and I challenged you to phone me at work.

The following working day, you phoned me on my office number. From then onwards we would talk over the phone for close to an hour most days. I don’t know how even now, we can always talk for hours and hours. During weekends and after work, I would phone on your father’s cellphone and ask to speak to you.  As I got to know you, I was impressed that you knew exactly what you wanted in life and you were so opinionated. One weekend around 2000-2001 you said you did not feel like going out and I should come to your parent’s home with video cassettes. I was so nervous when I thought of all those brothers of yours. We sat in the tv lounge whilst your mother was busy with her sewing machine. The first movie I think it was from Jean-Claude Van Damme and it went very well. Your father then came in and also sat in the lounge when we started playing Leon Schuster’s Panic Mechanic. I was so embarrassed when the movie started to play and I wished I could just disapper.

For the few months I stayed in Chitungwiza, I would bump into you in the bus and it was always my pleasure to offer you my seat and then continue the journey as a standing passenger. I might have hidden from you on some days when I also very tired to stand-up the whole 25km of the journey and I will spend the rest of my days making it up to you. When our relationship got serious, we would meet after work in Harare city centre upstairs at KFC Jason Moyo avenue and those days all we could afford was the ice cream.

 Up to when I met you, I had never really thought of settling down. I knew it was time to introduce you to the beautiful and strong women in my life, my sisters, my aunt in Sunningdale and my mother. Growing up, I remember some of the stories whenever I went to the village during school holidays about marrying someone from Masvingo and my eldest cousin had married from Masvingo. When I met you I did not care what my relatives would say, I was okay with marrying Wezhira. Marrying you is the best decision that I made in my life. We share many interests such as reading widely and the love for travelling.

We have been through so many changes in our life. Remember the days we started staying together as a couple in Avondale in September 2001 when we did not have much and we could not even afford a fridge and then moving houses, relocating to Bulawayo and finally having to leave our country of birth to come to South Africa. Thank you for being a pillar of strength. They say you can be as good as the company that you keep, thank you for being in my board of directors and I know any idea that I come up with must always stand up to your usual scrutiny. Thanks for trying to make me a better man and I hope to listen more to you. I have learnt a lot from you and at times, I have to remind you that you are no longer working at CABS mortgage department as you are more forceful that I always have to pay my debts on time.

Thank you Manyoni for making me the happiest man alive in the short 16 years that we have been married. Thank you for being a wonderful mother to our boys. Thank you for also being a mother to my brothers and sisters, I owe you a lot for taking in my siblings into our home at their greatest time of need when my mother also followed my father to a better place. I know you did not have to, you just did and you never complained about it. I believe my parents were able to rest in peace knowing that you and I would take care of their children.

May the good lord bless you, make all your dreams come true and give you an awesome life ahead.

Happy Birthday baby Ra Dabbie