Once upon a time, there was a guy named...B. haha. For obvious reasons, names will be withheld. Well, anyway, there was this guy right. He was a Christian, a faithful one, and he was pretty active in the church youth. He was also the Youth President (ahem haha).

Then...there was this girl, G. She was relatively unknown, and very quiet.

"She was in the youth for two years but I didn't see her or know she existed." - Mr. B.

(terrible right LOL).

One day, the editor of the Youth Outreach Report, a bulletin/handout (?), resigned to go study outstation. So, they had to pick a new editor. Guess who got the post??

Yes, G, of course! (this is so cliched right?) Even then, the blur Youth President didn't really know who she was. He saw her for the first time, properly, but they still didn't talk and all.
Then one day, the typewriter that G used had some problems. So, she got on her bike and cycled all the way to the President's house.

"I got a shock!" - Mr. B.

Of course he did! The blur guy didn't even know that she existed. So, anyways, she told him the problem, and he went over to fix it. Turns out they lived not very far from each other!

(terrible fella...)

That was the first real conversation they had. And the first time he visited her house. Awww...

AHNyways, B became more aware of her existence. Then...there was an incident where a brother of a close friend of G's had a huge problem. The guy came to talk to her, but she couldn't really help cause
1) she didn't know what to say, and
2) she was a girl and she didn't feel all that comfortable
so...guess what she did?

Yup. She told B, and asked for his help.

"I really don't know what came over me, but I rode my motorcycle all the way to her house, brought an extra helmet, and asked her, "Would you like to come along?" The funny thing is, she said "Yes!". So we went to the guy's house, whose sister was her close friend."

And so the story goes on that they talked to the guy (whose problem shall not be mentioned cause it's private), and after that even went out for morning coffee with the sister and a church friend who lived nearby.

The friendship grew.

And of course, there must be a twist in the story to make it fun. Well, there was this lady, X, who was a little cheeky, and decided that she would play matchmaker. ( ) You see, every Friday night, B would hold bible classes in the church. G meanwhile had night classes learning short-hand and stuff. So this lady, X, was supposed to fetch G from her classes to B's bible class. When she learnt that B had fetched G to visit that guy...her mind got a brilliant idea! She would call B up and ask him to fetch G because for some reason or other she couldn't and bla, bla, bla...

(i like the way she thinks!)

Unfortunately, B only had a motorcycle, and at that point he was fetching another girl, L, every Friday. See right, L had a thing for B. So every Friday she would call him up and ask him to fetch her. Now B being a very nice guy, couldn't say no, even though he didn't want to encourage anything between them.

Thus, X's plan came at an opportune moment (Or so B says...).

"I told [X] that I would fetch [G], and got some of [L's] admirers to fetch her to bible class instead."

Genius, yes?

That was the beginning of a b-e-a-U-TIFUUULLL relationship. Hehe. From then on, he offered to fetch her home from work and stuff. You know...

HAHA. Anyway, one day, he sat down and thought. (Not a rare thing to happen, don't worry)

"I began to ask myself, what am I doing? But then when I thought about it further, I also realised that I enjoyed her company."

Ooh. So that's how it happened. He continued fetching her on weekdays to and from work. But only weekdays, because she did not want to leave bad impressions in the youth on Saturday meetings, and Sunday church services.

B began consulting others, getting advice and confirmation that No, he was not wasting her time, or taking advantage of her. So...about 3 or 4 months later, he took her to a fineeee, fancy restaurant. The most expensive Western Food restaurant at that time: Top Top Restaurant (It is not there anymore).

There, he confessed to her, and to his surprise joy she said she was feeling the same. And so, the relationship bloomed!

From then on, they continued spending time together. Up til that point, no one knew of their relationship. But now it was out in the open.

"Our favourite spot was Gurney Drive. There were plenty of seats there, so we would take a seat and talk, share...That's when I learnt about her family, her life, and she learnt about mine. After that I would drive her home, and because she was a very homely person, we spent a lot of time there as well. I'd join her for dinner some days, then we'd go outside and sit under the ciku tree."

One thing about their relationship was, in youth meetings/church services, they would not sit together. They spent time together every weekday, but the weekends were for God and friends. Cool eh?

However, every relationship has its ups and downs. There were a lot of quarrels. B wanted to talk about it. G was not an open person; she would immediately clam up.

"After a particular quarrel, she would tell me, "Go home." I would have liked to talk about it, but she'd get up and walk in the house, and go to bed. "

See, the thing is, B had a very sharp tongue. Sometimes he would say words that were so cutting to G when they fought.

"I'd reduce her to tears. And she is not one who would cry so very easily."

Then, it got so bad, it was almost rock-bottom. She could not believe a word B said. At that point, he was going for missions in Indonesia. But they had just fought, and it was terrible.

"When I asked her, "Do you trust me?" She said no. "Do you respect me?" She said no. "Do you understand me?" Again, she said no. But when I asked, "Do you love me?" She said yes. That's because love is the strongest, and the hardest to break."

In Indonesia, B felt lonely and missed G a lot. He wrote back a love letter to tell her how he felt, that he missed her and was sorry for all the things he had said and done. G replied, but unfortunately the letter was lost.

When he came back, they began to mend their relationship. In the 6 years or so that followed, they had many ups and downs. But happily I must say, they wed on the 14th of December 1985.

To my pa and ma,

Happy Anniversary! (Well, almost, but i'd better post this before i forget hahaha)

Since you have made it so far, there's no point in destroying all your hard work right? All those love letters and ciku trees.

[Btw, my dad still doesnt know what was in that letter my mum wrote. She would not tell him, and over time, she probably has forgotten.]