The couple knew each other for many years and were good friends, so it was only natural that he would turn to her when he needed a partner to spend the rest of his life with. Mr Igbokwe explains;
"It was a family thing. I knew her father before the war. She is 42 years old. I also knew her mother. Even when my mother died many years ago, they came to pay condolence visit all the way from their place. You know, when people who are close to you are coming from a far place. They come with yam, palm oil and other things. They did that and that was when the mother introduced her to me as her daughter and I, as her son. It was mummy (late Christy Essien) that received them in Awka. So mummy knew her but there was nothing then. Let me tell you, you know mummy was spiritual. It wasn't me who invited her. What would I be proving if it was me who invited her? When mummy passed on, she came to Niteshift and other places where we met again.
You know I was interviewed by a newspaper then and I said 'Look there is no way I can get married again' but it happened as time went on. When I now mentioned to her that I wanted to get married, she said, after what you said in the papers, you still want to get married? I said what I said in the paper was what I said by the time I said it, that was how I felt. After a while. I told her if she knew who I want to marry, she said no. I said it is you! She said how could that be? What would her mother say and all that questions? By then mummy's death wasn't two years. She told me that the mother and herself concluded that if I wanted to get married, I should get married to whoever I wanted. That if mummy's death is not up to two years, nothing for me from her, that they want to give her that respect. So after three years of her death, we got married".
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