The fascinating love story of couple in Barnabas with 52-year age gap
Winnie and her husband Ndung'u during an interview with Mtaa Wangu at their home in Barnabas.
In matters of the heart, there exists a fascinating interplay between forces of destiny and the profound human emotion we call love. Many believe that love is a force beyond our control, guided by the hand of fate itself.
We meet Winnie Ndung'u, 40, and Ndung'u Kariuki, 92, a couple who live in Barnabas and have been together since 2014.
“I met my husband in his daughter's house in Molo. She was my close friend by then. I was helping in the cooking to ensure that her party on that day was a success,” she narrates.
Read: So this is love: Subukia couple shares the secret to a loving marriage
Little did she know that her days as a single mother of one would come to an end the following day.
Winnie says “I was to leave on the same day, but my now step daughter pretended to be busy as she insisted I remain behind to meet the father the next day, which to me did not seem odd.”
The next day, Winnie says she served tea to Ndung'u as instructed by the friend and went back to the kitchen to finish up on the dishes.
Winnie and her husband Ndung'u have been together since 2014.
“I was busy in the kitchen when my friend came to tell me that her father had expressed interest towards me. We later found out that it was a lie and she had told him the same thing about me,” she shyly says.
Florence Ndung’u, their step daughter now, was the catalyst to their love that ultimately brought a tale of two hearts entwining on their remarkable journey throughout their life.
According to Winnie, the two moved in together three days after their meeting.
She points out, “I did not know saying yes would bring a permanent enmity between me and my friend. Her motive was for me to solicit money from her father which did not sit well with me. All I wanted was to settle down.”
“Everything went fast, and on the fourth day my husband wanted to meet my parents. Despite the bitter feud between the families, my dowry was fully paid. Later we got married at the Attorney General’s office."
Winnie says till date she does not have a relationship with her step children, as they believed that she had come to squander their father’s wealth.
“These frequent fights led to my husband’s index finger getting chopped off because his seven children demanded 10 acres each, which they later got,” she notes with a frown on her face.
Despite the family wrangles, Winnie and Ndung’u have been blessed with two children who are 4 years and 10 months old.
Mr Ndung’u concludes by saying, “My wife is a blessing from God that came seven years after I lost my first wife. She has managed to help me live longer by ensuring I eat healthy and making me happy. With that, I made a vow to love her till my last breath.”
[email protected]