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Patience gives the Isharazas 50 years of marriage
Mr Matthew and Joan Isharaza on their wedding day in 1971. PHOTO/ZADOCK AMANYISA
What you need to know:
- Mr Isharaza used savings from his monthly salary to buy land and put up a house in preparation for marriage.
Sharing your life with the one you love for 50 years is worth celebrating. On Saturday, May 18, Mr Matthew Isharaza and his wife Joan will hold a function at their home in Bunura-Katooma Village, Ibaare Sub-county in Bushenyi District to celebrate 53 years of marriage.
The couple has been together since 1971 and they have 10 children. The family will also be thanking God for the life of their daughter, Ms Allen Tushabe Isharaza, who has been on treatment for cancer. To them, Tushabe would have died but God has sustained her life. The couple, who met in 1970, have enjoyed a blissful affair, an achievement they attribute to love, endurance, and patience for each other.
Mr Isharaza (84), a retired primary school teacher, says he was moved by his wife’s humility, not her education status.
His then girlfriend turned wife (68) had dropped out of school due to a lack of school fees. The two became friends and ended up in marriage.
“Having been brought up in a humble background, I got the opportunity to be taken to school by a missionary father who was at the time serving at Kitabi Catholic Parish. He enabled me to acquire an education and become a teacher. After my studies, I wanted to marry. When I finished my studies and was posted to Ngoma Primary School in Ntungamo District at the Uganda-Rwanda border, I needed to start a family. Many beautiful girls were coming in from Rwanda but I fell for my neighbour who was humble and understanding,” he says.
Mr Isharaza used savings from his monthly salary to buy land and put up a house in preparation for marriage.
“I used to get Shs1,030, which was enough at the time. So, I used my savings to build a house roofed with iron sheets, which was a good step towards preparing myself for marriage,” he explains.
Throughout their marital journey, the couple has trusted God as the foundation of their marriage and chosen to lean on each other with patience. This, they say, has enabled them to live together, give birth and raise children until now.
Ms Isharaza says their marital journey was God’s design because they don’t fully fathom the circumstances under which they came together and became friends for life.
“Ours was designed by the creator. For example, I don’t remember how I fell in love with my husband. We just found ourselves together. God who brought us together made it possible for us to become the most wonderful couple one could ever think of. We have been patient with life because, without patience, everything else crumbles,” she says.
Mr Avellino Isharaza, one of the couple’s children, says their parents were prayerful on top of being patient with life and themselves.
“There is absolutely no way our parents would have made it in life without praying to God and enduring. Raising 10 children was never an easy road but they managed to do it. It was only because they prayed, planned, and implemented tasks together. We thank God for their exemplary lives,” he says.
