They know each other from Suriname. As a boy of 13 he was already in love with the tip of her forehead where the typical implant of her beautiful hair sprang out. She, as a lady of 16
Romero & Soelia
They know each other from Suriname. As a boy of 13 he was already in love with the tip of her forehead where the typical implant of her beautiful hair sprang out. She, as a lady of 16, with a great singing career ahead of her, hardly saw him. Actually that was not so special. You know how it goes with puppy love. Life goes on and everyone goes their own way. He, Romero, went to the Netherlands after finishing high school. She, Soelia, went to New York after finishing hairdressing training.
However, when Romero decides to break up as owner of nospang.com years later to go back to Suriname, he suddenly sees a reaction from his old flame on his Facebook page. She was a member of nospang.com ! Suddenly his heart skipped a few beats. That was his old love. He quickly checked her Facebook status: “Single”! Oh, oh, oh his heart cheered, he wanted to personally change that status to “in a relationship with …”. He now decided to proceed strategically as an adult man.
Romero casually sent Soelia an email asking if she was the daughter of a very good acquaintance of his mother, whom he even called aunt. Of course he knew that this was a fact. Soelia, who had no idea and was very curious about who this young man was and how he knew her, casually replied to the email anyway and that is how the communication started.
The exchange went from casual and friendly information sharing to very interested to wow-I-can't-wait-for-your-email.” The tension built to such an extent that it eventually became unbearable.
After another intense email exchange, Soelia emailed her phone number in the middle of the night. That's when things got really Super Exciting!
Despite the 6-hour time difference, they continued to talk into the early morning hours while Soelia had to go to work that same morning.
It could hardly have been otherwise. Both lives went into overdrive and soon the families noticed that something was wrong. The families who had known each other for years could hardly believe the news when it finally broke. Soelia and Romero had fallen in love after meeting each other on Facebook. Now they were getting engaged in the Netherlands on the day that they would see each other again for the first time after more than 20 years.
But it was true. As a friend of Romero, who knows him from Suriname as a volleyball star, I also followed his status, but soon I really didn't understand anything about it. One moment he went to Suriname, the next moment he was engaged and suddenly he went to New York.
“Are you really coming to New York?” I asked. “Girl,” he said, “it’s a long story, but I have to tell it to you in person.”
We decided to have a nice and cozy dinner. I got to meet Soelia and together she told us this fantastic story. And how we laughed and enjoyed that evening. Reminiscing. Wonderfully cozy with old acquaintances from Suriname. It couldn't be nicer, cozier and this was the proof: Old love never dies.
In September '10 they got married and I was allowed to take pictures. It became my first and most beautiful wedding report. In the midst of Manhattan, two Surinamese lovers who said 'I do' to each other. When I think about it I still get warm inside. The pictures speak for themselves, don't they?
Happy Valentine's Day to you too!
Romero is the owner of NoSpang.com , a site with Surinamese news. He lives with his wife Soelia in New York.