A magnetic connection — Tavarie and Roejan go from best friends to lovers
Published:Tuesday | November 15, 2022 | 11:43 AMAaliyah Cunningham/Gleaner Writer
As children, Tavarie Golding and Roejan Allen would play together around the yard of the Linstead Pentecostal Church. According to Tavarie, as early as age five, he was certain that somehow his and Roejan’s lives would be intertwined forever, even if it didn’t initially seem that way. While speaking to Island Wedding, the couple recalled Roejan asking Tavarie be her friend. He told her no though his heart wanted nothing less at the time. Fast-forward to several years later. He would get on one knee and ask her to be far more than just friends, to which she said yes, and they would begin their journey to happily ever after.
While growing up, Roejan and Tavarie spent countless hours on Digicel Free Nights, having conversations about everything and nothing at all as they got to know each other better. It was during this time that they became best friends. “Find your own identity and stop stealing mine,” he recalled jokingly saying to her as they grew closer to each other. By this point, he realised how truly a part of him she was.
“I felt him even before I saw him, and when I did, he always took my breath away, stopped me in my tracks, and I had all the giddy feelings one could feel rushing through my veins. It was an electric love, a love we never admitted to each other as friends, but it was a love that we both knew existed. Time passed, and we grew closer by the minute. We never saw each other more than maybe three times for the year, but our conversations were endless on the phone, from sunrise to sunset, and our connection grew stronger as we got older,” said Roejan of what it was like falling in love with Tavarie, who was her best friend at the time.
However, ten years eventually passed without the two seeing or hearing from each other when Tavarie went overseas.
“The feeling of being away from her for ten years is something I cannot put into words, not to mention the 13,067km distance between us, and yes, I checked. But somehow, the love I had for her remained with me during that time. It was tested and proven true through the different paths and adversities life threw at me. Sometimes I would question if I would ever see her again or feel as connected to her as we did when we were younger,” he said.
Roejan would frequently check up on him through Facebook to see what he was up to, and though they were physically apart, they both declared they still had a magnetic pull to each other. Nevertheless, after all that time passed, one day, Tavarie returned to church along with his parents, and without fail, when their eyes locked, it was like they had been together for all that time. Oddly enough, they saw each other just a day after Roejan’s friend had tried convincing her that this was the season of finding love.
“We reconnected after my friend’s wedding. We were not expecting to see each other. That exchange really stood out for me. I was very nervous, and he was also very nervous, but our love connection was so intense and overpowering that we could not ignore it anymore, and we decided to take it a step further. When we got home, he called me as he said he would, and a week later, he asked me to be his girlfriend,” she told Island Wedding. Almost three years after that, he popped the question.
SPECIAL MOMENT
“Nervous could not even describe how I felt. I re-enacted the scenario of when we first reconnected at her church. Her father called on me to greet the church, and I called her to stand with me. Well, technically, I asked her to sing. I made a few remarks and then got down on one knee. I asked her to make me the happiest person and to be my wife. She said yes! Together with our families, we celebrated the moment when destiny became our reality seamlessly,” he shared of the proposal.
Little did Roejan know that their families had been cooking up this plan behind her back. Her love even made sure to incorporate her mom, who was ill and, unfortunately, passed away before the proposal.
“The proposal was in March 2022, and before she passed, she kept communicating with my husband in terms of planning the proposal and the wedding, and she was having her own conversations with me at the time, but I was completely unaware of her schemes with him, so the very day of the proposal and the very month we got married all were according to the plans they had together,” she revealed.
The couple tied the knot on July 7, 2022, under the theme vintage royal, with a colour scheme of black, gold, and ivory at the Caymanas Golf Club. The bridal party was dressed by Roejan and her mom, who designed all the garments together, before the couple were even engaged.
“The highlight for us both was the foot-washing ceremony. Not only was it something unusual, persons normally do the sand ceremony, jumping the broom, or the knot tying. It was very intimate and emotional. We really connected washing each other’s feet and having those sentimental words being spoken while we did it,” she said
“We are looking forward to growing together and learning from each other on a deeper level and building a life that we never expected. We always say to each other that we are not husband and wife when we put the ring on the wedding day, but when we go through the journey together and learn from our mistakes, and we understand ourselves on a deeper level so we can be that person for one another,” Roejan continued.
Newly married, the couple has even more exciting news as they are expecting their first child together.