JOIN USJohn, now 60 years old, and Sarasamma, 55, had to wait for over 40 long years to live together.
P A John was the third of four boys born to a farmer’s family of Panachikkad panchayat at Chingavanam in Kottayam district while Sarasamma was his neighbour.
“Being neighbours and having grown up together as children, we realised that we were in love in our teens itself,’’ John told Deccan Herald over phone. “We used to loiter around parks and beaches, go to the cinema and festival venues,’’ he said. John’s family was deeply religious and belonged to the Church of South India denomination while Sarasamma was born a Hindu.
The lid was blown when John’s turn came for marriage at the age of 30. “As expected, everyone, including my parents and his relatives, opposed it. However, both of us were determined that if we were to live, it would be together,’’ said Sarasamma. Soon after, both John and Sarasamma converted to the Pentecost sect along with her family.
“However, my mother was stubborn and could not accommodate Sarasamma even though she had become a Christian,’’ says John forthrightly. “I was in no mood to defy my mother who had struggled so hard to raise all of us,’’ he admitted.
Time went by and both of them plodded on. “Since we were deeply religious, we took refuge in prayers,’’ said John. However, it was when his mother passed away nine months ago that John suddenly began to feel alone.
It was then that “good sense’’ dawned on his brothers who also came around to the idea that he needed a consort. John and Sarasamma had then become members of an independent church of Changanassery, which arranged for their union.
John and Sarasamma finally got married on Sunday.
“We have no specific plans for future, but would very much like to have children if god wills so,’’ said the newly wed couple.
DH News Service