83 Years Of Marital Bliss!
Jan 22, 2004
<b><i>Couple tell their secret of long stay in marriage</i></b><br>CAN any of you, however much you worry, add one single cubit to your span of life?...So do not worry about tomorrow: tomorrow will take care of itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.â€
Couple tell their secret of long stay in marriage
CAN any of you, however much you worry, add one single cubit to your span of life?...So do not worry about tomorrow: tomorrow will take care of itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.†says Jesus Christ in the Bible.
Such is the guiding principle by which Asanasio Rwabununga and his wife Annah Mukamusana have lived for nearly 100 years.
The two were wedded in holy matrimony in 1930, after being married customarily in 1921. Rwabununga had paid bride price of a solitary cow. They had their first born, boy in 1922, who unfortunately passed away. And 83 years down the road, their marriage is still going strong, and God has blessed them with several generations of offspring. “I was 18 years when we married. We were blessed with 13 children –– 10 girls and three boys but only four girls and a boy are still alive,†says Mrs. Rwabununga, who has an amazingly sharp memory.
Annah, who is almost clocking 100 years, says had her first child still be living, he would be 81 years now. But she is happy that her second child Esteri Komire, is still going strong at 76 years, and happily married in Ntungamo.
Rwabununga is frail but alert. Their youngest child Grace Rwabununga, 41, stays at home to look after her parents. Grace says her father speaks with difficulty because of a recent bout of fever. In normal circumstances, he can express himself independently despite being over 100 years.
The old couple are not paupers. They are cattle keepers and grow sufficient food to feed the family and their dependants. Since they are too old to do the actual farming physically, they have managed to keep the farming activities running through hired labour.
They own over 300 head of cattle and the number continues to increase.
Their home, situated four kilometres on the Kasese-Fort Portal highway, is a modern permanent house at Kiruli village, in Kasese district.
The sound of wind, under the shed of the acacia tree where we were seated, was melodious to the ear.
The gentle wind blew down from the Rwenzori Mountains, bringing with it a cooling effect in the hot humid atmosphere in the plains at the foot of the mountains.
Their long love story makes you want to hear more. “It is Jesus Christ who has helped us to develop great love for one another. Our love grows stronger each day that passes,†says Annah.
Here you are forced to stifle a chuckle. Then the bombshell: “We have never cheated on each other since we got married,†Annah continued.
She said it so naturally that you would think it is the easiest thing to do: In her soft voice, she explains how they have achieved this.
“We have been saved for a long time now. We first married customarily in 1921. In 1930 we were both baptised in the Anglican Church and wedded in church. My husband got saved (became a comitted Christian) in 1939. I got saved after him. We were still in Rwanda by then,†recalls Annah.
The Rwabunungas trace their origin in Gahini village in Northern Rwanda. It is there that Rwabununga got in contact with church missionaries who taught him to read and write. He lost his father at the tender age of two years and later lost his mother. Rwabununga was raised by his uncles, from whom he learnt the art of cattle keeping.
By the time he got saved, he had already started to serve as a catechist in the church. It was in pursuit of pasture for his animals that he migrated with his family in 1944 and settled in Isingiro near Ntungamo.
Here, he served as a catechist in one of the village churches in Isingiro until 1983 when he again migrated to Hima in Kasese, in search of pasture for his animals. Last December, there were special prayers to celebrate the lives and fortunes of the Rwabunungas.
“We are praying to God daily so that all the children of our children can also get saved in order for them to live longer,†said Annah.
Rev. Peter Muhindo and Rev. Ivan Bwambale Sibilhondire of Ntungamo described the couple and family as committed Christians and supported the Church morally and materially.
“Rwabununga has so far contributed 10 cows to the church development project and he offers the church a bag of maize each harvest season,†said Rev. Sibilhondire.
What food have this couple eaten to make them last so long. “My father enjoys eating posho and chicken while mum likes matooke and beans,†says Grace.
Ends
CAN any of you, however much you worry, add one single cubit to your span of life?...So do not worry about tomorrow: tomorrow will take care of itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.†says Jesus Christ in the Bible.
Such is the guiding principle by which Asanasio Rwabununga and his wife Annah Mukamusana have lived for nearly 100 years.
The two were wedded in holy matrimony in 1930, after being married customarily in 1921. Rwabununga had paid bride price of a solitary cow. They had their first born, boy in 1922, who unfortunately passed away. And 83 years down the road, their marriage is still going strong, and God has blessed them with several generations of offspring. “I was 18 years when we married. We were blessed with 13 children –– 10 girls and three boys but only four girls and a boy are still alive,†says Mrs. Rwabununga, who has an amazingly sharp memory.
Annah, who is almost clocking 100 years, says had her first child still be living, he would be 81 years now. But she is happy that her second child Esteri Komire, is still going strong at 76 years, and happily married in Ntungamo.
Rwabununga is frail but alert. Their youngest child Grace Rwabununga, 41, stays at home to look after her parents. Grace says her father speaks with difficulty because of a recent bout of fever. In normal circumstances, he can express himself independently despite being over 100 years.
The old couple are not paupers. They are cattle keepers and grow sufficient food to feed the family and their dependants. Since they are too old to do the actual farming physically, they have managed to keep the farming activities running through hired labour.
They own over 300 head of cattle and the number continues to increase.
Their home, situated four kilometres on the Kasese-Fort Portal highway, is a modern permanent house at Kiruli village, in Kasese district.
The sound of wind, under the shed of the acacia tree where we were seated, was melodious to the ear.
The gentle wind blew down from the Rwenzori Mountains, bringing with it a cooling effect in the hot humid atmosphere in the plains at the foot of the mountains.
Their long love story makes you want to hear more. “It is Jesus Christ who has helped us to develop great love for one another. Our love grows stronger each day that passes,†says Annah.
Here you are forced to stifle a chuckle. Then the bombshell: “We have never cheated on each other since we got married,†Annah continued.
She said it so naturally that you would think it is the easiest thing to do: In her soft voice, she explains how they have achieved this.
“We have been saved for a long time now. We first married customarily in 1921. In 1930 we were both baptised in the Anglican Church and wedded in church. My husband got saved (became a comitted Christian) in 1939. I got saved after him. We were still in Rwanda by then,†recalls Annah.
The Rwabunungas trace their origin in Gahini village in Northern Rwanda. It is there that Rwabununga got in contact with church missionaries who taught him to read and write. He lost his father at the tender age of two years and later lost his mother. Rwabununga was raised by his uncles, from whom he learnt the art of cattle keeping.
By the time he got saved, he had already started to serve as a catechist in the church. It was in pursuit of pasture for his animals that he migrated with his family in 1944 and settled in Isingiro near Ntungamo.
Here, he served as a catechist in one of the village churches in Isingiro until 1983 when he again migrated to Hima in Kasese, in search of pasture for his animals. Last December, there were special prayers to celebrate the lives and fortunes of the Rwabunungas.
“We are praying to God daily so that all the children of our children can also get saved in order for them to live longer,†said Annah.
Rev. Peter Muhindo and Rev. Ivan Bwambale Sibilhondire of Ntungamo described the couple and family as committed Christians and supported the Church morally and materially.
“Rwabununga has so far contributed 10 cows to the church development project and he offers the church a bag of maize each harvest season,†said Rev. Sibilhondire.
What food have this couple eaten to make them last so long. “My father enjoys eating posho and chicken while mum likes matooke and beans,†says Grace.
Ends