Cancer-survivor marries love of his life

For Dwabenhe Gordon and Janene Wright, their love story started off effortlessly. First laying eyes on her over Instagram, Dwabenhe wasted no time in sliding into her DMs. With their first conversation lasting well over an hour and a half, without ever meeting each other, the pair was hooked.

“For me, I guess I was taken aback because it was so easy,” Janene recalled. “I felt at ease speaking to him. Because you know when you’re just talking to somebody over the phone, you probably think it’s gonna be 10 minutes. You’re just gonna say ‘Hi, how how are you?’, the little first questions, ‘What’s your favourite colour?’ Kind of thing. But it went far beyond that. I chat off him ears,” she joked.

Two weeks later they went on their first date at Broken Plate in Kingston.

Dwabenhe explained, “So just talking to her for that time period, the attraction was there based on conversation. But meeting her and seeing her mannerism and behaviours, little cues and things like that, it was just very attractive to me so it was very easy to continue talking and getting closer.”

Though their first kiss didn’t take place until about two dates later, the pair said it was well worth the wait. Seven weeks in, the two made their relationship official.

Falling in love quickly, the next six months were a blur of all-night phone calls and spending every minute they had in each other’s company.

“I guess when you know you found all the qualities you’re looking for in a partner, there was a sense of ease. I felt like I found my person, somebody I felt like I could be myself with totally,” Janene explained.

“We took the time to really form a friendship,” Dwabenhe added.

Popping their blissful bubble, in January 2023 the couple got news that could have potentially risked their forever.

“A year and a half ago, I realised that I was having some very difficult headaches and we wanted to find out what it was,” Dwabnehe explained. “So we went and got an MRI and we discovered that I actually had a brain tumour. Because the headaches were so severe, the doctor I spoke to recommended I go to the hospital right away after I got the MRI.”

No sooner than they arrived at The University Hospital of the West Indies, than they were greeted with the news that Dwabenhe needed to have surgery.

Now caught in whirlwind medical crisis, Dwabenhe said through both his surgeries he held on to God and Janene.

“I prayed about it,” he began. “She was with me the whole time, very supportive, very helpful, very worried obviously but she was with me.”

Contracting COVID-19 herself during that period, Janene said at the forefront of her mind was just the love of her life getting through this.”

Dwabenhe said that after discovering that his tumour was actually grade two cancer, and fighting for 12 months to get it in remission, the ordeal put his life in perspective for him.

“It was very clear to me that I would have been wasting time because I knew who I wanted to be with. I knew she was my person. Sometimes there [are] experiences that teach you, they show you who a person is, how they react under pressure and when the chips are down. She passed with flying colours.”

He continued, “I could have come out of that incident with any number of issues, not being able speak, not be able to walk, whatever and regardless of the situation she was there and I was very impressed by that.”

Deciding to pop the question on their favourite holiday – Christmas – Dwabenhe organised the surprise for her after their dinner.

Without any warning to her or her family, he got down on one knee after the dishes were cleared.

“Mi just start bawl. I was like ‘What is he doing?’ And then my mother is like ‘You never know?’,” she joked, remembering the moment.

She continued, “I was really caught off guard but obviously I was happy because in my mind I already knew that this is the person I want to spend the rest of my life with. It was just a matter of time, but I just never anticipated it considering what we’d been going through.”

He added, “My thing is, it kind of shows you how short life is when you go through something like that. The things you want, the things that are the desires of your heart, you don’t want to wait because you don’t know if you’re going to miss the chance. So, I love Christmas, I love her, it just made sense.”

Not wasting any time, the two were married on June 14 at the Hope Botanical Gardens in the MSW Events 14-14-14 mass wedding.

shanel.lemmie@gleanerjm.com