(EDITOR’S NOTE: I absolutely had to share this wonderful “love story” posted by Leslia Brice with readers of BAHAMAS CHRONICLE as a Guest Commentary on the occasion of the ninth anniversary of her marriage to Leander Brice.)
GUEST COMMENTARY: BY LESLIA BRICE
NASSAU, Bahamas – Oct. 5, 2022 — 𝑀𝑎𝑟𝑟𝑦 𝑦𝑜𝑢𝑟 𝑏𝑒𝑠𝑡 𝑓𝑟𝑖𝑒𝑛𝑑…I don’t say that lightly. Really, truly find the strongest, happiest friendship in the person you fall in love with.
Someone who speaks highly of you, a person who respects you. Someone you can laugh with. The kind of laughs that make your stomach ache, the embarrassing, earnest, healing kind of laughs. Wit is important.
Life is too short not to love someone who lets you be a fool with them. Make sure they are someone who tells you it’s ok to cry too. Despair will come. Find someone who will be there through those times, who will hold and comfort you.
Marry the one that combines passion with love. Most importantly, marry a man that loves Christ and keeps his family first!
Happy 9th Anniversary to us babe and cheers to forever…𝐼 𝐿𝑂𝑉𝐸 𝑌𝑂𝑈 𝑀𝑅 𝐵𝑅𝐼𝐶𝐸! #LLLove #itsouranniversary #wekeepGodasthehead #teamBrice #cheerstoforever #mybestfriend
(EDITOR’S NOTE: As someone who has been married four times, clearly, I could have benefitted from Mrs. Brice’s sage advice before saying “I do” to probably two of my wives. There is no question that I was very, very much in love with my first wife Camille Brannum, who was from Washington, D.C., and is the reason why I relocated to D.C. in 1975. Camille and I were married in D.C. in June of 1973, and she moved to Nassau with me after the wedding. But as I noted in previous articles, Camille did not like living in The Bahamas and convinced me to move to D.C. with her to give our marriage a chance to survive. It did not and we were divorced in 1978.
My second marriage was to Enid Gbenyon of Monrovia, Liberia. After Camille and I divorced, I decided to remain in D.C. I met Enid in the late 1980s when I was News Editor of The Washington Informer through one of our reporters, Alvin Peabody, who was also from Liberia. I also loved Enid with a passion, and after I initially returned to The Bahamas permanently in 1996, on one of my frequent visits back to D.C., I proposed to Enid and we were married in 1997. Enid tragically drowned in January of 1998 near Saunders Beach on West Bay Street in Nassau across from the apartment complex where we lived when I was Editor of the Nassau Guardian.
My other two marriages at times were emotionally rewarding while they lasted, but they both ended in divorce. So, when I read this engaging marital anniversary tribute by Leslia Brice, I concluded that this advice she suggested was lacking in those marriages: “Marry the one that combines passion with love.”
