December 07, 2010

Meet the Parents Part 2

So quick recap: K and I started dating March, my parents came to visit and met him in April . May rolls around,  K is graduating from business school and it's my turn to meet the family ! 

A few weeks to the graduation, K's mom calls him and in the course of conversation with him, she realizes she taught my mom in secondary school at Methodist Girls High School in Lagos Nigeria. For a fleeting moment, I instantly thought wait until mom hears this; a wave of nostalgia swept over me; I wished my mom could be right there.  

The conversation shifted to what we would wear for the graduation ceremony and K hands over the phone to me so that the women could talk. K's mom says, "we have chosen to wear pink lace, do you have any or should I have something made for you." I responded in the affirmative and it was set - We would be wearing pink lace for K's graduation. FYI we meant: me, his mom,  his sister, his sis-in-law and his sis-in-law's sister. 

The date of the graduation finally arrived and I was a ball of nerves. K asked me to make some J-rice and chicken so that they would have some food to eat when they arrived the day before the graduation. Gosh ! I felt like it was a cooking exam, I felt the food had to be perfect. 


The day before, I woke up early and headed to my hair braiding appointment. When that was done, I proceeded to my apartment, got the food ready - drove over to K's place set up the stuff and it was off to the airport. 


We made our way to baggage claim to meet them after we arrived at the airport. As we got closer to the baggage claim and I made eye contact with K's mom - it was my turn to drop to my knees and "kunle" (kneel down) to greet her. So right there in the middle of the airport, I just knelt down for what seemed like forever (although it was probably just a few seconds) before she got to me and said I should get up. 

They loved the food and I got compliments. I was thrilled!

The next day was graduation day, so I met them all at K's apartment so we could head over to the graduation. I arrived in my pink lace and my own matching gele. After we arrived at the ceremony, K's mom realized I had tied my own gele, which did not match the rest of the entourage, and she hastily handed me her "ipele" and said "how will they know we are all one family, if we are not matching ?"  I obliged and K's sis tied my newly acquired head-tie and we all matched. It was truly beautiful... This would not be complete without a picture: 


At the end my meeting the family went well and the journey continued.... 

4 comments:

  1. What a lovely story and a nice warm welcome to the family!

    Kudos to you for the public kunle. I'm impressed!

    You ladies look gorgeous in pink...and you know what? It made me think that it's kind of a nice tie to your mom too...silly perhaps!

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  2. Such beautiful picture. I like it a lot. Wow, you are so respectful to kneel in the airport. I bet they were also impressed with that too. At least I am. That is so awesome. Can't wait to hear more :)

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