Jewzel and Dwayne - JamaicaObserver.com

Saturday, November 07, 2009 11:19 PM

All Woman

Jewzel and Dwayne

A love story that started at 3-years-old

By NADINE WILSON All Woman writer

Monday, May 25, 2009

SAVE for a photograph, Jewzel Trudy Phinn has no recollection of cutting her birthday cake with her husband-to-be Dwayne Andrew Williams when they were both three years old. But at the end of this month, 22 years after that first encounter, they will both be cutting their wedding cake together.

Their story reminds even the most sceptical among us that a fairy-tale love affair can still happen, even in a world filled with uncertainties and broken hearts and marred by hopelessness.

It all began when Phinn's aunt invited the young Williams to help her niece cut her birthday cake. No one can say why he was chosen for that role, except that both of them looked cute together and he seemed like the perfect match, Phinn said. For the adults it was a perfect photo opportunity.

And from that day onwards, Phinn was declared Williams' 'wife'.

Phinn and Williams in love

"Throughout the years we were like friends and neighbours. He lived like a couple houses away from me. His older brother would come by our house and he would be like 'Mrs Wills' and I would be like 'No, what you talking about?' and all that childhood stuff," Phinn shared, still blushing from the memory.

A few years later, Phinn relocated from their small community of McCooks Pen in St Catherine to Charlemount, also in the parish, and Williams migrated shortly after at age 10. All contact between the two was severed, as neither knew where the other was.

In 2005, Williams, then 22, attended his grandmother's funeral where he actually ran into Phinn. The two briefly spent the time catching up on what was happening in each other's life and then went their separate ways. But Phinn said she cannot erase the memory of that day from her mind - she was smitten to say the least.

Cutting her third birthday cake decades ago.

"I was like wow, we were like standing there looking at each other and smiling. Then we started embracing each other and wondering, 'is this for real'? We spoke but not for long, we just exchanged few words," Phinn recalled.

Shortly after the funeral, Williams gave his father his number to pass on to Phinn for her to call him. She did, and since then the two have been inseparable.

"We wanted to know more about each other and tried to make up for the years that went by. For my 23rd birthday he came to Jamaica, and we actually got the time to spend together and reflected on what happened from 1987 to 2006," she said.

Phinn said that over the years, Williams had grown into a handsome young man, but apart from his physical attributes, she noted that he was kind, gentle and had the qualities she was looking for in a husband. He is also a very good cook, never missing an opportunity to surprise her with a new dish whenever they meet.

It was during a telephone conversation in May of 2006 that the couple decided to take their casual relationship to another level.

"We were on the phone one day, talking regularly and then he is like 'Trudy, will you be my girlfriend?' and in return I had asked him, 'will you be my boyfriend'?

"I said yes! I was waiting for it but I didn't know how to actually ask for it, because I didn't want to rush it," she said.

Williams is now living in Florida and so the couple only gets to spend their vacation time together. But while a long distance relationship can be strenuous, Phinn said both of them have been using every means within their power to be close and maintain communication.

"I would never tell anybody that it is easy, but if you pray and ask God to help you go through, then you will manage. I mean there are going to be times when you are actually going to be fed up, but if you press on and if you actually believe and know that you love the person, you will put in all that you can," she said.

So now as the couple prepares for their wedding which will be taking place in Jamaica, there is no doubt that Phinn is sold on the idea of a fairy-tale romance.

"It was planned in some way. It is something that we [all] wish for sometime in our lifetime - to actually meet that person," she said.

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