True Love never Dies

Moving On

Baby Ronnie reminded me every day of Sam, so even if he wasn’t with me he was near me through his Son, our Son.  Months went by and my mum noticed that I was getting thinner by the day, I seldom ate and was very anti-social. So she brought two girls to stay with Ronnie and I to keep us company. That’s when young girls and boys dropped by every night to socialize with us. Slowly I was coming out of my shell and eventually I was actually sitting drinking Kava with them.

Then one morning when Ronnie was about five months old while I hung out our laundry, three men stopped near our Verandah for a rest, so I said good morning to them and went over to shake their hands as is the traditional custom. I first shook hands with the older man and then the younger one and then suddenly the young man walked up and gave out his hand. I held his hand and just stared at his tattoo. It was as if this was Sam as the tattoos were just like Sam’s. I held on to his hand and just stared and was in a trance until he spoke out and asked if I had finished looking at his tattoos. I felt something with him, I felt warmth and love. I slowly pulled my hands away and went back inside. I walked right over to Ronnie’s bed and told him “Son if we cant get hold of your real Daddy I think I've just found another Daddy that I know will love us both.

A few weeks after meeting the Young man with the same kind of tattoos as Sam, one night he finally came home and asked to talk to me. His name was Toby and he came like a real gentleman, “MJ I have to ask you if you’re still seeing or hearing from Ronnie’s father,” he said. “Why do you ask,” I replied. “Well, I have been observing over the few months and noticed that you're Single-handedly raising your Son and thought I would come to ask you traditionally to be my wife. I would love to get to know you and I do not want your Son to grow up without a father figure in his life, so I thought if you would accept it I am most willing to be your husband and be a father to Ronnie”. I was shocked indeed and didn’t really expect someone to be so fast and keen on asking me to be his wife. “Toby, you're sweet, and thank you very much for the offer, yes Ronnie’s father has not contacted us and we don’t really know whether he will come again but I don’t think I am ready to move on yet,” I told him. “MJ in that case can I always come around some evenings just to chit chat with you and get to know Ronnie because in time you might change your mind,” he told me. “Of course you're most welcome to come around anytime, we cannot stop you from coming around to chit chat.

Toby came around every evening with little gifts of fruits, foodstuff, and some evenings he had dinner with us. My mum was curious one evening and asked me and I told her that he just asked to visit us for chats and he loved Ronnie.

Toby, however, could not help but stop himself he was so in love with me, so one of those evening visits we were shocked to note that when he came he wasn’t alone. He had come with his Grandfather, as is done traditionally to ask for my hand in marriage. Mum and I were both shocked and for us in the Fijian custom when the boy's family visits your family to ask for your hand in marriage in the traditional way it's almost so rare that the girl’s family will reject the gifts and doweries offered for her hand in marriage. In the same way, my Mum and I had to accept also because Toby’s family were friends with our family.

After that night Toby moved in with us in my mum’s home and I had to accept the fact of moving on without the man of my dreams, the love of my life.

In October of that same year 2002, I got married to Toby and later had our first child together, a baby girl, and we named her Mercy. Ronnie loved Mercy and they grew up together and there was lots of love in our little family. I however had to teach myself to forget about Sam even though Ronnie reminded me of him.

Toby supported our little family well with his farm and our two kids grew up in a loving family. I later found work in a nearby Island Resort and we moved there before we eventually moved back to the City where I found work in a local Media company. It was in 2007 and 2008 that I conceived again and bore another two boys, so there our family was growing. I worked there for four years before we decided on moving back to the village.