My Story: We Got Married 12 Years Ago, His Children Would Call Me ‘Masi’ And My Children Called Him ‘Uncle’

“I was married to the love of my life, an army man who I had two beautiful children with. I used to be a journalist and traveled with him to the places he was posted and later took up teaching as a profession once my children were born.

In 2000, he passed away from a brain hemorrhage and life as I knew it came to a stand still. I didn’t think I would ever love again and I was okay with that— my world narrowed down to my kids and I was happy.

In 2004, my mother surfaced the idea of a re-marriage and asked me to meet someone she had in mind. I took my time and decided to meet him, if nothing to get a friend out of the situation, but when I did meet him he was so kind, compassionate and caring that I couldn’t help but meeting him multiple times. He had lost his wife to cancer and had three children, so we were both in the same situation. Our conversations lasted for hours, because someone else was finally going through the same thing. I realized that after everything, I could still feel, and I felt for him, I fell in love again.

We got married 12 years ago and initially it took some time getting used to. His children didn’t fully accept me and would call me ‘masi’ and my children called him ‘uncle’. Slowly, as time went by I started becoming their friend and an incident I’ll never forget is on the day of his daughter’s wedding. Her mother- in- law asked her to start calling her ‘mom’ instead of aunty and she immediately turned back, looked at me and said, ‘you’ve been a mother to me for so many years and I’ve called you aunty— please, can I call you mom?” and I don’t think I’ve ever been happier in my life— we had finally accepted each other.

These past 12 years have been beautiful — we’ve traveled the world together and watched our family grown. We’ve also made our own customs and traditions — every year on his wife’s and my husband’s birthday we cut a cake and on both their death anniversaries we go to the temple to pay our respects.

As a family our love has grown over 13 years with our 5 children and 3 grandchildren, we’re all going to Lonavala this weekend It’s going to be absolute madness! As for the two of us — we continue to be best friends and each other’s secret keepers. We also continue to date; in fact, we’re on one right now— he has a very romantic night planned ahead. I can’t wait to see what it is!”