Till death do us part? No, says man as he ‘weds’ dead partner
After living informally with his wife for 26 years, Mr Stanley Macharia decided to formalise it on August 17, 2024, where the venue was to be Anglican Church Pumwani, Nairobi.
He was to formalise his union with Nancy Muthoni and thereafter treat those in attendance to a party at Saint Anne Primary School grounds on Jogoo Road.
The wedding committee was in place, invitation cards had been sent out, wear designers had completed their work and the presiding reverend was all set.
But man proposes, God decides.
The wedding was not to be since Ms Muthoni died 11 days to the big day. On July 27, 2024, Ms Muthoni suddenly fell ill and ended up being admitted to Kenyatta National Hospital where she was diagnosed with pneumonia. She breathed her last on August 6, 2024.
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Shocking as it was, Macharia was determined that not even death would stop his big moment. He decided that the burial ceremony would replace the wedding day.
It is such a decision that gave rise to a sad-happy ceremony last Saturday at Gikoe village in Murang’a County as the bridal team wore the wedding regalia during the burial ceremony as had been designed, and the bridegroom lying in her casket in her gown and crown.
The village was invited for a rare event— a burial-cum-wedding ceremony; a celebration of life and death.
The gathering that had flocked ACK Gikoe Church remained silent and keenly listened to the speakers who narrated how the wedding would have been big, colourful and entertaining.
Cake matron, The Reverend Margaret Muchiri, said the wedding ended up being that of Ms Muthoni and God.
“The earthly wedding with her husband is not to be. We pray for Mr Muchiri to wait patiently for God to reveal His plans for him now that he took his wife away,” she said.
Mr Macharia said the loneliness and emptiness that had come with the death of his wife of nearly three decades will require God’s grace to overcome.
He planned to formalise his come-we-stay union as future security in an era of widows being disinherited.
“As a man ages, he must start putting his house in order…wedding your wife formally is part of smart living in anticipation of our departure from the world of living. It is a form of social and economic security for both and the children in it,” he said.
But instead of exchanging the vows, the widower only paid last respects to the woman who together they had sired two sons, with a grandchild as a bonus.
Mr Macharia together with his two sons read their tributes which brought out the departed family matriarch as a woman who loved her family.
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She was described as hardworking, dutiful and spiritual to the point the void she leaves behind will haunt them for some time into the future.
The groom together with his best man walked down the aisle marching to the tune of the love ballad “Stuck on You’’ by Lionel Richie.
They were closely followed by the groom’s men and the bridal team wearing beautiful golden brown dresses, in what was meant to be a wedding now turned into a prologue for interment.
The bride, who usually walks down the aisle as the last person in a wedding ceremony while everyone else is seated, was lying inside the domineering and conspicuous white casket wearing her bridal attire: The gown and the crown, just as she would have donned for her big day.
The overseeing committee tried their level best to give the burial ceremony an aura of a wedding drive, only that tears of grief could not come out as those of joy.
The gloom was stubborn to behave as excitement.
Ms Nancy Mwangi, who was to be the best lady in the wedding, had tears rolling down her cheeks but tried hard to speak happily.
“We decided that we would wear all the wedding attire as it had been planned because today is indeed a wedding day for our departed friend…I declare happiness in this pain and I am sure she is happy that the day came to be…” she said, joy-sorrow tears rolling down her cheeks.
Speakers during the burial ceremony talked about God’s plans versus those of Man.
The wedding committee Vice-Chairman John Ng’ang’a said the same committee that was organising the wedding decided that it would not break after Ms Muthoni’s death and started organising for the burial ceremony.
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