Love is kind and poor and blind
Love truly conquered all for a Manenberg couple who, despite a disability, poverty and a huge age gap, say they're rich in love.
|||Cape Town - Love is literally blind for this cute couple who are looking forward to celebrating their special bond on Valentine’s Day this Sunday.
Every day fruit seller Riedwaan Mohammed, 52, works hard to feed himself and his blind girlfriend, Nicole Brown, 26.
The loved-up couple met seven years ago when Brown was just 18.
Five years later, Brown was left blind after a “germ” entered her bloodstream.
But love conquers all, and despite her disability, their poverty and huge age gap, the couple from Manenberg say they’re rich in love.
“There were times we used to sleep in the rain in people’s backyards,” Brown said.
“We’d be wet from the pouring rain and have nothing to eat for days, but we had each other’s love.
“Even now, we live in a tiny place which we call an ‘enkel sel’ (single cell), but we don’t mind because we have each other.
“We live off candlelight and bread, but our love makes our bellies full.”
Brown met Mohammed seven years ago, while he walked the streets of Bonteheuwel selling fruit.
She admitted that his “dirty” look was a turn-off at first.
“He used to make remarks that he wants me, and my cousin would tease me, and I would say no that man is vrot (rotten), he smells like fruit,” she said.
“But I got to know him and he was so caring.
“He taught me it’s better to be an old man’s darling than a young man’s slave.
“And also not to go for looks, because while a young man goes out looking for other girls, the old man will always come home to you.”
Mohammed’s sister-in-law, Jamielah Ismail, 38, was a little shocked to hear Brown refer to her new boyfriend as “uncle”.
“She said, ‘Uncle Wanie is here’, I laughed and said, ‘Why is she calling her boyfriend uncle,’” recalled Ismail.
Brown has a 10-year-old daughter from a previous relationship, who lives with her grandfather, but visits her every weekend.
Her health took a turn for the worse in 2013, when she suddenly lost sight in one eye.
“When I visited the hospital they said I needed to come back in a few days, but I didn’t go and then I became blind in the other eye,” says Brown.
“I only see shadows, and not what is in front of me.
“Mohammed is my eyes, he does everything for me when he is home.”
Riedwaan, who now sell fruit in Gatesville, said he fell in love with Brown because of her beauty.
“Age doesn’t matter,” he said.
“It is about the love you have.”
And a possessive Brown warned: “I love Mohammed very much and if any woman takes him away from me, I will kill her.”
Daily Voice