And so, it was another gathering for the celebration of love in Ipetumodu, a town in Osun State, when two mentally-challenged individuals, Deborah Opeyemi Peter and Stephen Adewuyi Adetayo, of St. Mary Rehabilitation and Development Centre, Ipetumodu,decided to tie the knot on Saturday, 25th June, 2011. Their story is a classic case of how intense, passionate and unexplainable love can be.
According to the handlers of the centre, Sister Elizabeth Kehinde and Sister Mary Abodunrin, the bride, Deborah had been brought to them as a child. Deborah, who is intellectually challenged, was said to have been brought up under Sister Mary Abodunrin. She was groomed and taught vocational skills of soap making and trained psycologically by other handlers at the centre.
In a chat with Sister Mary Abodunrin, she revealed that Deborah had always been a special and obedient child.
Said she, "Today is a happy day for us all at the rehabilitation centre. The couple is handicapped from birth. They lack proper intellectual reasoning. Deborah, to me, is a very special child. I trained her and she is a good girl. She was brought here at a young age. A lot of parents who give birth to "special" children, most times, feel disappointed and therefore fail to care for them and nurture them with love. That is why we encourage such parents to bring such children here where they would be given a sense of belonging. Deborah arrived here as a girl who needed acceptance and wanted to feel loved. Today, you can see that our mission has been fufilled because she was nurtured in love and has found love. We have all categories of handicapped people here; from hearing impaired to physically challenged ones. We accept children from infancy and training starts from when they are as young as six years. This enables them to assimilate over the years and be better individuals."
Speaking on how the couple met, she said, "Deborah's husband, Stephen, is also intellectually challenged. He works at the Catholic Hospital here at Ipetumodu as our compound manager. Deborah worked with a Reverend sister who worked at the hospital and that was where the couple met. They met as friends and then fell in love. I am happy that our rehabilitation work is complete. The success of the wedding between Deborah and Stephen today is a call to parents who have disabled children to see that there is ability in disability. I advise parents to accept their children in their uniqueness and give them the needed support. Though the education of handicapped kids might be slow and frustrating, parents or guardians need endurance as the patient dog eats the fattest bone and this is evident today."
In his sermon, the preacher the Apostolic Church, Ipetumodu, Pastor Obajuwon Moses Tuberu, charged the couple to look beyond their disability and challenged them to remain steadfast and to live together in harmony, as ordained by God.
Reverend Obajuwon said that marriage was instituted by God, and that the success of it was the priority for both individuals.
He congratulated the couple, stating that their bold step to tie the knot is an evidence of true love, adding that they should support each other no matter the circumstance.
The staff of the centre thanked the supporters of the centre which is run by the Catholic Mission and support from the public and parents, adding that there were still a good number of children with disabilities who still needed support and goodwill materially and financially. They encouraged as many that could render help, including the government of the state to always remember the plight of the disabled at all times and should not only celebrate the physically fit. The couple, in seperate interviews, expressed profound love for each other, stating that they wanted to start a family immediately.
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