In an interview with Punch last year, the ‘healthy living advocate’ revealed how John proposed to her when she was younger. According to her, the proposal came through her father.
They subsequently got married on December 18, 1982.
On how they met
“We met when he came to do a project behind our house in Abeokuta, Ogun State. He was working with the National Electric Power Authority in those days and I recall that he was building the power station behind our house.I used to just stand in front of the house to do my laundry and other chores.On one of those days that he passed by, he came to my house and made passes at me. I told him he would have to meet my father who would make enquiries about him. That was how it was done back then. So, my father went to his home town.”On how he proposed to her, she said:“In those days, he could not come directly to propose to me so he had to go through my father. He told him he wanted to marry me and it was after my father gave his consent that he used some sort of mathematics to propose to me. He cited an equation that x and y would always meet at an infinite point.I did not understand what he meant. I innocently said there was no way they would meet.”Do you have pet names for each other?Quincy: We call ourselves ‘D,’ meaning Darling, but along the line, I started calling him ‘my lord’ because if you go back to the Bible, Sarah used to call Abraham her lord. Sometimes, he calls me my praise name in my local Egba language.John: I call her darling, which has stuck over the years.What is your greatest wish for your marriage?John: My wish is to see our children who are not married to do so in our lifetime. I also want my grandchildren to grow and get married in our lifetime and give us great grandchildren. They must stick together and not divorce under whatever circumstances. That would give us great joy.What do you think is responsible for marital breakdown?John: I would say that prospective couples should study each other well before they go into marriage, especially during courtship. If there are character traits that one of the partners does not like, it is advisable to speak up rather than wallow in silence. The partner should not assume that the person may change when they get married. Couples must be able to understand and trust each other. They must love, tolerate and respect one another. They should avoid pettiness and not allow external influences. Above all, they must try to stay together no matter what comes their way.
Quincy: The problem is usually from the outset. If one does not have a clear cut vision of the kind of person one wants to marry and one eventually gets married just because it is fashionable, then there would be problems in one’s marriage. Like I said earlier, I made up my mind that I was not going to marry a Yoruba man and he had to be an engineer, a lawyer or doctor. He must also be God-fearing. One should set some criteria for oneself before going into any marriage.
Whenever there are disagreements, who apologises first?
Quincy: In most cases, I apologise first because I believe that my husband is my crown and he is the head of the family. In the first place, he is older than me and also, he is my husband. The Bible says, “Wives, submit to your husbands,’’ so I apologise first. My husband is a very nice person; he looks after me and the family. He fulfils his own side of the bargain.
John: My wife also makes me see reasons why I should apologise to her too when the need arises.
Congratulations to them.
Congrats Lady Quincy.