Nowadays, so many couples meet via online dating that when you tell someone that you met your boyfriend in a bar they look at you like you just told them you caught a unicorn out in the wild.
But for Joseph Edgar, the story of how he met his late wife in the bank is both fascinating and funny.As a man, you must agree that getting a female banker’s number right in the bank is an herculean task, and those that agree to give out their number, are always proving too hard to get, one; because of the caliber of men they meet on daily basis,
I mean the deep pocket men that, a salary earner like myself can’t compete with.Two: Because of how demanding the job is.
Here is the Duke of Shomolu story of how he met the lady he called EreluI walked into the Habib Bank Branch in Ikoyi and beheld her. She was wearing an ugly blue dress but you could see her beauty.
My type. Light skinned and curvy. Full bodied with full lips and a smile that was bewitching.This was 1996 and I was not yet the Duke. I was skinny but had my swag and confidence.I walked up to her and said Good morning. She looked up and smiled and said Hi.I said my name is Edgar and what is yours. She said she was Mena and I said lovely name where are you from, she said South Africa. I believed.She was from Ebu in Delta State but was born and bred on the serene University of Ibadan Campus to the proud Mowete Family.“I asked her for a date and she said yes. I said where do you want to go and she said there was the Fish pepper soup place at Queens drive in Yaba and we went.“The soup cost me N1000 and another N1000 for cab to and fro I knew I had carried expensive woman with my N40,000 salary.“So I sold my Okada bike to fund the almost daily trips to the fish woman. I sold the bike for N14,000 and swore to have her as my girlfriend by the time the money finished.One morning, I realised that it was N3,000 left and I begged her. ‘Mena, the money is remaining, N3,000 and you have not agreed. By the time the money finish, if you have not agreed there will be nothing to sell again o.She smiled, gave me a Son- Alvin and promptly died.“As I stood over her lifeless body on the Hospital Bed in Ikoyi, tears streaming down my face wondering what I would tell Alvin, I wondered if all these would have happened if I had just left her alone that rainy morning in Habib Bank.Sad. My chest is paining me even as I try to console Alvin with words even I do not believe.Na waDuke of ShomoluI am humbled
