A Jamaican Fairy Tale: Love, Marriage, Baby Carriage

It was Saturday night.

Beyonce’s ‘Freakum Dress’ was blasting when Terry walked into the club. Her dress was on point. Red. Short. Tight. It had just enough slit in the front to reveal some chest and just enough split in the back to reveal — the rest. She sauntered to the bar, ordered her favorite brand of red wine and allowed her eyes to survey the room. She saw them all. The inflated egos, the old vultures, the smooth talkers, the ballers, the shot callers. Her eyes skipped over them and finally stopped on him.

He stood in a corner, mojito in hand. Like her, he surveyed the room. He’d undone the first three buttons of his untucked collared white shirt to show some chest and his fitted jeans showed off — the rest. Eyes met. Energies ignited. Sparks flew. And, that’s how they knew, it would be the beginning of something beautiful.

***

Okay, I lied.

That’s what I wanted Terry to tell me when I asked her how she met Eric, but she was intent on dousing the flames my imagination had ignited. She said:

“We met in sociology class.”

Boring. I know. But sometimes, most times, that’s how love comes. It doesn’t need the bright lights and extra hype. Sometimes, most times, it’s raw, passionate, unaccompanied by puff and fluffery — less like a Beyonce concert & more like an Adele song.

***

Fresh out of a divorce, Terry moved from Boston to Philadelphia with the intent to start a new life and seek higher education. Eric was the guy in class with the jokes she could relate to because they were both older than the average student and as Terry puts it: “We just got each other.”

New state, new lease on life, hot guy in class — recipe for romance, right?

I’d like to think so, but still, that was not the case. She placed him into the friend zone. 

For four years, she took advantage of his sweet nature and listening ear. He was the guy she would run to with all her good, bad & ‘What the hell was I thinking?’ dating stories. He was the guy who had her back.

And you already know what Jamaican comedian Owen Blakka Ellis says about the guy who has your back — he never gets your front.

***

Unbeknownst to her, Eric was totally besotted by Terry. She embodied everything he was looking for in a woman and he absolutely loved the fact that she abided by three simple rules:

1. clothes muss press
2. house muss clean
3. Sunday— rice-and-peas fi cook

He patiently listened to her stories, all the while biding his time because he knew one day, he would get to sample her rice and peas — and he did. One night, he shattered Mr. Ellis’s theory to shreds. Terry said: 

 “It took two beers and a stupid play. It wasn’t even a date!” 

And that, my friends, is how their love story started.

***

Now, forget the ‘they met, fell in love and live happily ever after’ BS. This is real life, and it would be remiss of me to tell it without mentioning some real-life issues.

Like the fact that Eric dumped Terry two days before Christmas because he feared getting his heart broken, and she was willing to walk away because she feared losing her best friend. Luckily, they were smart enough to put their fears aside and by New Years, they were back together.

And then, there was the issue of Terry’s mom who, like most Jamaican women, do not believe in the subtle art of saying something with requisite skill and sensitivity — aka tact.

Though she later came to love him, her comment when she heard her daughter was dating Eric was:

 “I would never date fi them kind.”

Her mother, like the many other people who were quick to pass judgement, didn’t understand Terry’s frustrations in dating. She explained:

“I am black. Alek Wek black.”

“Black men don’t often look in my direction. In fact, if I walk down the street and turn 5 heads, most of them are not black. Black men only see me when I walk with Eric.” 

***

Thankfully, the couple didn’t allow trivialities to get in the way.

They were married at The Half Moon Jamaica Resort in November 2015.

As Terry-an puts it:

“At the end of the day, I didn’t see color. I married a man whose intelligence and sense of humor won me over. A man who proposed to me while I was washing the dishes. A man who loves rice and peas, red stripe beer and everything Jamaican. At the end of the day, I married my best friend.” 

***

UPDATE: Terry and Eric recently celebrated their anniversary and they now have a bouncing baby boy.