I would like to share my story, I don’t know if it is romantic, but I just want to write down how I feel about our relationship over the past 1 year and 2 months.
It actually begin in year 2006 when I was praying for a godly woman to enter my life, someone who is a Christian, of course, someone who would enjoy jogging with me (after we got together, we jogged less than nine times!), someone I could communicate openly with, and of course, pleasant looking, and someone able to accept me for who I am.
I told God that I would not be involved in any relationship for a year until September 2007, which was when I completed SOT2007. After graduating from SOT, I was at Suntec office one day and happened to see a girl who caught my eye, working quite intently on her mega big Mac computer. I realized later that she was a graphic designer. God has a sense of humor; I don’t consider myself the creative sort.
I found out her name and started emailing her, asking many questions about her beliefs, family, interests, hobbies and life experiences. After many emails and a telephone conversation, I confirmed that she was single and I wanted to pursue this relationship. I had to inform my ZS soon!
Our first date was during the musical, “When I Grow Up” at Victoria Theater in November 2007. It was a memorable one. I ran from River Walk to meet Sir Stamford Raffles … No, I mean this girl, at 1955hrs! I barely made it on time; I was sweating from the sprint.
It was an enjoyable musical with lots of flowers and bumblebees, a musician with a giant candy cane, a fumbling superman and skeletons dancing around.
We went for supper at Marina Square after the musical with some others. It was such a large entourage that I felt like I was in an interview! After that, I sent her home for the first time in my old beat-up Renault van.
We had a few more phone conversations and one day, I found out that her dad was hospitalized. And so, out of goodwill, I volunteered to send her to the hospital. I also decided to visit her dad together with her. I remembered in Bible School, we learnt that how a daughter treats her earthly dad is how she will relate to her heavenly Father. That day, I took my time and discreetly observed how she treated her father. Not bad, I thought, you get to learn about relationships in SOT.
After the hospital visit, we got together in late November 2007. I bought the proposal ring in February 2008 and waited for the right moment to pop the question.
I proposed to her in May 2008 after she came back from a weeklong trip to Hong Kong. I fetched her at the airport and brought her somewhere to ask the question. She said yes!
After that, I went through a bad patch in life and our wedding plans did not go on as smoothly as we wanted to. But we managed to pull through till November 2008. All this while, she stood by me, praying and believing in me, even though I lost my temper at her many times.
We were left with 18 days of planning and executing the wedding ceremony and things went on well. By the grace of God, we were happily married on 18th January 2009, in a simple and heartwarming matrimony, shared with many friends and relatives.
On Sunday 18th January 2009, I recited my wedding vows, “I, Tan Kok Siang, take you Phoebe Sung Seow Ting, to be my wedded wife …” at the beautiful premises of the Singapore Art Museum.
Today, we are working our marriage, day by day, by sharing simple chores, at our new flat. I do the laundry, she does the food, she mops the floor, and I throw away the rubbish. I learn to lift up the toilet pan and put it down after use, I also learn to communicate truthfully, how I feel.
Truly, marriage is a new phase of life, and it takes love, patience, kindness, gentleness, hard work and effort to stay in love, as we continue to court each other all over again.
This is the start of our love story.
