By Femi Ajayi
Neither cord nor cable can so forcibly draw, or hold so fast, as love has done in the lives of Lanre Ogunlesi and his wife, Modupe. To the stylish owner of prestigious Sophisticat Fashion House in Lagos, love and marriage so gladly combine, like Siamese twins born in the same clime. Lanre is head over heels in love with Modupe 40 years after his heart skipped to the sweet, soft drift of her smile.
Lanre and Modupe’s story reads like a dreamy exposition to extraordinary verses of love. Rather than dwell on familiar intrigues and alien realities that render human passion a shoddy and infantile enterprise in the annals of mortal romance, the story of their love becomes the reference point for aspiring romantics.
Their love story is best told in a more substantive format and literary forum hence this only represents a cursory glance at the genesis of their love.
That the duo started out as friends and cautious romantics is a reality known to their loved ones: friends, family particularly.
According to Lanre, loving Modupe is both enlightening and invigorating; it reveals to him daily, his immense and unpredictable capacity for compassion and high affection. Lanre never knew he was capable of loving anyone so until he met Dupe. And ever since he met the apple of his eye, he has worshipped daily in the spirit house of her love and elevated warmth.
Living with Modupe is equally liberating; it unearths to him daily the subtlety and clamorousness, and unrivalled ethereality of her love. The longer his stay with her, the deeper and more confounding his capacity to love her and yearn for her love.
Modupe could be enchantingly sweet. When she talks, her voice wafts like rose-fragrance waltzing in the wind. In such blissful moment, she metamorphoses into a silhouette of delightful colors captivating everyone in the path of her charm, like an old minstrel delightfully pawing at her mandolin.
But she is no minstrel neither does she feverishly paw at the strings of any mandolin; all she has is her charm and her smile – which makes her a woman, mother and wife to die for.
Not a few people were amazed last Sunday at the celebrants’ resilience and maturity that saw them through 40 years of wedlock – even as many other celebrity marriages had crumbled within the shortest spells of matrimony.
The couple attributed their marital success to an enduring love and friendship and the ability to look every issue in the eye and tackle it with tact and an overwhelming bid to resolve it. Perhaps, many more celebrity couples will look to the Ogunlesis for tips on how to be in a marriage.
