Mzee, 84, weds 24-year- old

Friday, 5th August, 2011

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Joseph Lwere, 85, a Christian, wed a Muslim, Sarah Nanfuka, 24, at St. Paul’s Church, Mukono By Jordan Mubangizi  DID someone say love has no age limit? Well, the marriage of Joseph Lwere, 85, and Sarah Nanfuka, 24, went beyond that. It also had no religion limit. Lwere, a prominent landlord and businessman, is a Catholic and Sarah, a housewife, is a Muslim. The two residents of Ntawo zone in Mukono central division, were married at St. Paul’s Church, Mukono on June 4. When Saturday Vision visited them on Thursday, Lwere said he was fine with his wife, who added that she had no regrets so far. Their wedding ceremony was a drama of sorts. Lwere, who was widowed five years ago, did not go through the ceremony in peace. The crowd, which quickly gathered, kept heckling him, saying he did not have enough ‘stamina’ to handle the young woman. At one point, he was forced to retort with assurances like: “I still have the stamina. I know how to make her happy and satisfied. I will love her to death and I am very sure we will even have many children!” However, during his wedding mass, Lwere and his best man kept dozing off. At one point, Fr Paul Ssebitoogo, the priest who wedded them, asked him a question and got snores for an answer. He called on the best man to wake him up, but he had also dozed off. The priest had to awake the groom himself. Nanfuka’s relatives showed up, but refused to enter the church. They remained outside, showing their displeasure at their daughter’s choice of husband. They joined the voices heckling and hurling insults at the couple as the mass was going on, saying the groom had ‘confused’ their daughter. Lwere’s relatives, however, did not take this lying down. Some of them confronted Nanfuka’s relatives and the two groups interrupted the mass with a bitter argument. Lwere’s relatives argued that the girl’s relatives should have been happy because she was going to get riches from the old man. It took the intervention of Fr. Ssebitoogo to calm down the irate relatives. When asked later, Nanfuka said: “I love my husband with all my heart and it’s not about wealth,” she said. After mass, when the time for signing the marriage certificate came, Sarah was asked to present a viable witness to sign on the matron’s behalf. Her mother stepped up. The crowd, seeing that Sarah’s mother was still far younger than Lwere, started murmuring. Someone in the crowd shouted: “Why didn’t you marry that one instead!” In his speech, Lwere said he had prayed to God for his wife’s replacement and God had heard his prayers. “When my beloved wife died, I tried very hard to live alone and after five years, it became very hard for me,” he said. “All my children are away with their families. So, God decided to find me a solution, which you see here. I am happy that He gave me Sarah to look after me,” Lwere said.