When love knows no bound, a wheelchair appears like a throne. Beautiful blogger, photographer and nurse, Lizzy O and Amen’s epic love story has been on people’s lips since its first appearance on BellaNaija.
Their story sounds like those on fairy tale books, only it has a happy ending. Amen had first heard about Lizzy and wanted to meet her because he was thrilled by her story; she started college at 15.
That wasn’t all, Amen eventually met the adorable Lizzy and instantly fell in love with her. Then tragedy struck! Lizzy got involved in an accident that sent her to a wheelchair, but that didn’t discourage Amen, it even made him love her more.
They got engaged in November 2015 and with the help of Lizzy’s photographer colleague had a pre-wedding photo shoot that screams “hey! I am on a wheelchair but I am still hot.”
Looking at the story of Lizzy and Amen, one would summarize their friendship in one song. Read Excerpts from their love story.
Amen(The Groom):
I liked Lizzy when I heard about her, fell in love when I saw her. I finally met this Lizzy immature at the movies on an unforgettable day in 2007. I was leaving the theatre with my brother, D-mite and other friends; while, Lizzy was just arriving with her best friend, Faith.
She is the perfect combination of pretty and outgoing that brings the excitement to my life. Case and point, when I got home I mustered enough courage to add her on Facebook Lol (FB was the in thing for college folks back then). However, after she accepted my friend request I shied out again and did not talk to her. Lizzy wasn’t having it lol so she sent me a message first (even though she wouldn’t admit, I think she was interested too lover was all the fuel I needed to step up my game.
Lizzy and I have been dating for over 8 years now and it has been one of those growing experiences that keep getting better with time. I remember when we first started talking. It was non-stop Facebook (FB) messaging and back and forth poking (I don’t get why FB poking was so fascinating then). Our conversations will go to the wee-wee hours of the night with no topic off limits. We could start at family and end in politics or music and end at school (I wish y’all could get a glimpse of our banter, it is for the fonder). My favourite thing we would talk about is our faith and the Bible.
Now, throw in Lizzy’s live to the fullest personality amongst her other attributes; I’ve found exciting companionship in enjoying the fullness of life. I want this forever so I invested in a ring and I went to ask her father for her hand.
Lizzy (The Bride):
Meeting Amen for the first time at the movies during Spring Break of 2007, I was just so happy to finally know someone else who was really young and in college. We met through our mutual friends at the movies and it was just a very regular meeting FOR ME! I was there with my bestie and I kept trying to ship her with Amen because they both had similar body build back in the day. I would call both of them and force
I would call both of them and force three-way phone calls after 9pm when it was free. My bestie was NOT having any of it but I seriously thought Amen was amazing and really enjoyed chatting with him and that was the beginning of it all o. Though I thought so highly of him, it never occurred to me that I should date him. Amen didn’t express bluntly that he wanted to date me, so we were just friends, and friendship was all that I thought and felt. I liked him, enjoyed chatting with him a lot and was so free with him that I’d find myself sharing intimate details about my life with him. We’d be on our Facebook walls chatting for hours and talking on the phone almost every single day back then (Amen’s calls/texts are amongst the reasons my dad had to switch our mobile plan to unlimited everything –
Amen didn’t express bluntly that he wanted to date me, so we were just friends, and friendship was all that I thought and felt. I liked him, enjoyed chatting with him a lot and was so free with him that I’d find myself sharing intimate details about my life with him. We’d be on our Facebook walls chatting for hours and talking on the phone almost every single day back then (Amen’s calls/texts are amongst the reasons my dad had to switch our mobile plan to unlimited everything – Lol… I love you Daddy!).
Conversations with Amen were so fluid and I eventually stopped trying to put him and my bestie together when it became apparent that they both wouldn’t get past their age difference and when Amen explicitly showed that he was interested in me. Well, as a fine girl who was also equally stupid, I told Amen I only liked him as a friend and would even tell him about other boys I was talking to. He’d listen like a champ and just tell me to be careful. He gave me selfless advice and was always so understanding.
The crazy thing about the whole thing however, was that no matter how many guys I connected with or talked to or tried to make it work with, I’d always compare them with Amen and not be fully satisfied with them. The relationships I tried to make work with other guys somehow ended up not working due to one reason or another.
Amen continued to be my very good friend whom I knew I wanted in my life forever, but wasn’t into like that. Talk about friend-zoning before it became a word. I am however not proud of myself for treating him as just a friend all those.
In his teenage years, Amen was already on fire for Christ, always included God in everything he did and I just didn’t want to ruin him by being his girlfriend. We were 18 and I thought to myself that we had the whole world ahead of us, and there was just no reason to fully commit to dating someone I knew would want a long term relationship. About that same spring of 2008, I made it a life mission to get Amen to kiss me so that I could confirm our compatibility and then finally say yes to being his girlfriend.
Well, that plan failed miserably because Le Boo shut me DOWN and said the right way, or no other way. I’ll be honest with you, I was very disappointed and told him we couldn’t date if he wouldn’t even kiss me. Something I would later come to regret, because right after spring break 2008, I headed back to school in Oklahoma and it was on my way back to school that I got into a car accident.
As I was in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) and during my physical rehabilitation, Amen was the one constant person I’d tell everything to other than my best friend. I would share the nitty gritty details of what the doctors said was happening to me with Amen, and he’d go on the internet and read more about what life meant with a spinal cord injury so that he could better relate with me. Communication was the rock on which we started this relationship and we still talk about any and everything on the surface of the earth. I’ve learned so much from my love and I’m inspired by how hardworking, smart, God-fearing, kind and genuine he is.
After the car accident, Amen continued to make it a point to let me know that he was still interested in having me as his girlfriend – however I was just not having it because I didn’t feel like I deserved to be loved by him. We were friends and that was that. I wasn’t willing to automatically accept his proposal to date me after the car accident. As a matter of fact, the car accident became a MAJOR reason why I was determined that dating Amen just wasn’t going to happen. First, was because I felt like I was damaged goods and second was that though we chatted frequently and I was already falling in love with Amen, he hadn’t visited me in the hospital, and only came to the rehab once.
We remained friends and I went back to college in January 2009. Living a new life with spinal cord injury and in nursing school, I’d share everything with Amen! We’d Skype, call each other and were basically inseparable. We shared something we knew was deeper than we could put a label to, but we both knew we had to define our relationship and make progress in life.
As I was healing from the physical trauma caused by the car accident, I was also healing emotionally and coming to terms with the fact that God had given me a second chance at life and at Love. Praying together, laughing together, crying together, and doing everything together, I came to realize that Amen is my blessing from God and if I ever had any moment of doubt of how much God loves me, all I had to do was look at Amen and I’d immediately be reminded that I am blessed beyond what I deserve.
Amen asked me to officially be his girlfriend on Valentine’s Day year 2009 and with all the love and joy in my heart, I said YES! Did I mention we eventually had our first kiss and it was EVERYTHING? Ok, TMI… but everything I ever worried about regarding dating Amen was so insignificant looking back on it now. Having officially dated for 7 years, LAWWWDD I AM SOOOO ready to be his wife!
Having officially dated for 7 years, LAWWWDD I AM SOOOO ready to be his wife!
I am so in love with Amen and although our story is not one of boy meets girl, both fall instantly in love, I am surely grateful for where we are right now. I’ll continue saying to him and to anyone who cares to listen that I wish I could change so many things about our journey, but deep down inside of me, I am just JOYFUL that it was still OUR Journey.God made me for Amen, and made him for me. I love my handsome, God-fearing, very smart hot milk chocolate. I am so ready to get married and live the life God has planned for the both of us. I cannot wait to build our life together forever and I’m so glad that I stopped wasting time and listened to everything I was feeling when I felt the confirmation that Amen was the man for me.
