DREAM MARRIAGE: THEY MET IN DREAM AND MARRIED IN REAL LIFE
The marriage of Lucress Popoola, a Beninnoise to an imbecile Olayinka Popoola, a Nigerian and son of a cleric, against all odds may sound like fairy tale. But it is real.
It is also real that Popoola first met her husband and began a courtship with him in a dream. This happened when Lucress suddenly went into coma for two weeks after her mothers attempt to discourage her from marrying Olayinka. While in coma, she met Olayinka who revealed himself as 'God's choice' and fed him for two weeks before she woke up. That is the bizarre story the young lady weaves around her relationship with the husband.
Possibly, the eventual union on March 6 when they wedded was already ordained by the gods. From the tale, there were strange circumstances that led to the union.
Lucress said she had a revelation almost two years ago in Port-Novo where she was the choir mistress of a branch of the church where they wedded in Benin Republic. 'God told me in a vision that my husband is the first child of my church leader.'
However, she did not know the church leader's son so she told her mother who is an elder in the church hoping that she would help find out who the man would be. But she met a strong opposition.
Her mother, who already knew that the man in her vision is an imbecile, told her to forget it and see another vision, indeed a genuine one. Said she: 'My mother doubted if I actually heard from God, and said it might be the devil that ministered to me. She said she knew the condition of the person my vision pointed to, that he is just an imbecile. She sounded a note that if I see him I would never approve of him. My mother demanded that I forget about him completely. I accepted her position but was not convinced.
Some days later I suddenly fell ill and eventually went into coma. I was told that the coma lasted two weeks. But while I discovered that I was somewhere, I cannot really describe the place. A certain man, crippled and imbecile, handsome, tall and fair complexioned always brought me food. He would come in a wheelchair but would stand up from the chair to attend to me. He came regularly until a time he told me he would not come again and that I would be going back to my people. He used to ask me what I would like to eat before his next visit. But that day he did not ask me and when I inquired why, he said I would soon join my people and it was then I got up. I found myself in the hospital with syringes, drip and water all over me and was shocked. It was then people around me began to praise God that I have come back after two weeks of being in a coma.
It was this unusual experience that made the mother soft-pedal on the issue.
She narrated her experience after she woke up and told them that she met her marriage partner while in coma, and gave his name as Oluwatomisin. Incidentally, the Oluwatomisin is also another name Olayinka bears but it is only his parents who know this. So, her mother dismissed her vision as incredible because she knows the so-called God's choice to be Olayinka not Oluwatomisin. But Lucress was still not deterred, she insisted on coming to Nigeria to see her pastor's son. Her mother would have prevailed on her again to shelve the plan but for her personal experience with the divine.
The mum fell ill shortly after and had a vision. In her vision she was given two options: whether to die so that her daughter weds Olayinka after her demise or she allows it and live to witness the occasion. Now convinced that her daughter's vision is mysterious, she accompanied her to Nigeria to know Olayinka, their pastor's first son.
While in Nigeria, they relayed their experience and mission to Olayinka's parents. But the pastor's wife would not be convinced as she told them to forget the vision if it had to do with her first son. But Lucress described the man she saw in her vision.
She took her to Olayinka in his room and Lucress confirmed that he was the same man she saw in a dream. Even Olayinka on seeing her smiled for the first time in his life and that was how their love story, which was consummated last March, began.
Reverend Moshood Popoola, the General Overseer of the New Testament Christian Church, Ilorin, a church with branches across Africa, is Olayinka's father. He also told Saturday Sun another shocking story about his son on his wedding .
Olayinka was not born an imbecile. His predicament began when he was three years old. He suddenly fell ill and passed out. Message was immediately sent to his father who was then a teacher in a community school in Omu-Aran in Kwara State. When the news of his son's death got to Popoola who was also an evangelist then he simply told the bearer of the evil message that he would come home only when he was through with his class and continued his lesson.
According to him, when he finished teaching he headed home but stopped by to call a senior pastor in the church who joined him home. They got home and took the dead tot to a room and locked themselves in and began serious prayer for God to revive his soul.
'After about nine hours, my boy came to. But his condition was terrible. He returned an imbecile. I challenged God that he should make my boy whole, that that was not the Olayinka He had taken. God told me that He had returned him in this manner in order to glorify Himself in future. He assured me that everything about Olayinka would be miraculous. So what God has done in his life today (wedding), isn't it miraculous? Popoola asked rhetorically.
And his mother said: 'After 'resurrecting' from the dead on that fateful day, Olayinka could not talk or eat. We began another session of prayers for God to restore him fully. Later he began to eat very sparingly. I remember a day that he eventually spoke. It was like a big dream. It was in the midnight and we had all slept. He was sleeping in between my husband and I. Suddenly I heard his voice: 'I want to drink water'. My husband woke me and told me that he just had a dream where Olayinka told us he wanted to drink water and immediately I told him that I had the same dream. Suddenly Olayinka repeated the statement and that convinced us that we were not dreaming. We gave him water and since then he has been talking although with a little difficulty. We danced and praised God till daybreak. A doctor had told us that he would not talk or eat as he is like a vegetable. But our son spoke and ate. It is a miracle.'