Marriage at 87 has given my life more years of happiness

Rev John Lewa, 91, is a living testimony that old age with all its attendant glitches can be tamed into a near normal phase in life.

The nonagenarian, who goes about his daily chores unaided, reads the Bible without glasses and manually tends his farm, surprised many when he remarried at 87.

Rev Lewa still has strong teeth to eat anything he fancies, even roast meat and maize. His dental formula is amazingly sturdy and healthy-looking.

“I have lost six out of 16 back teeth,” he says of his molars and premolars, flashing a smile that displays a white set of un-breached incisors and canines. He adds: “The rest of my teeth are intact.”

“Conventional toothpastes cannot match charcoal and salt in dental care. I have no cavities,” he says in anticipation of my next question.

He enumerates the secrets of healthy ageing as active daily routine, eating healthy and avoiding reckless indulgences. He cites alcohol, cigarettes and promiscuity among habits he jettisoned long ago.

“I last tasted alcohol in my youth at a push from my father and I vomited until he sympathised with me. The last time I ever smoked was in 1958 before I went to study theology at African Brotherhood Church (ABC) Divinity school, Mitaboni, Machakos in 1959,” says Lewa.

“A happy marriage prolongs life. I lived with Sella, my first wife and mother to my nine children continuously for 51 years until she died in 2012. What followed were three turbulent years during which I languished in loneliness until 2015 when I met and married the Rev Phyllis Munini. She has since spruced me up. You can see that I do not look groggy.”

What prompted Ms Munini to accept him at 87? ”Call it an act of God,” says Mzee Lewa with a grin that eases his wrinkles.

“She had initially turned down my request, conveyed through two African Inland Church (AIC) pastors who were friends to my family. She was 59, a nun in the church who had committed her life to God’s service without distraction until I came into her shadow.” 

“I also had an input,” chips in his son, Prof Peter Lewa. “Mzee had cautioned me, his only living son, that I would not escape blame if he died of loneliness. I helped identify Phyllis,” he brags to hearty laughter from us all.

Phyllis, with an aerie chuckle, recalls: “Back home after setting my eyes on him for the first time, I went into prayer to tell God that I did not want ‘that old man’. But he continued calling me. He was not the type to surrender midstream.

Vision from God

“Then one night as I slept, I saw a vision. God told me, ‘I delayed you for the old man. He is the one I have chosen to be your husband,’” recollects Phyllis adding: “I had no option but to say, ‘yes’ and the rest is history. We have lived happily together since.”

In AIC nuns are free to marry.

“I was over the moon when she accepted my hand. Without hesitation, I took cattle and goats to her parents and cooked in keeping with the Kamba tradition, followed by a fabulous wedding ceremony at Masue African Brotherhood Church (ABC) on October 17, 2015,” says Rev Lewa proudly, describing the event as “unalloyed miracle”.

“It was my second miracle since my late wife and I narrowly escaped death in a horrific bus accident on the Kitui- Machakos road that claimed 65 lives, including those of our two daughters, in 1963,” he says, sadness permeating his face.

On his enduring oomph and energy at a time his few living peers have withered away like singed flowers, Rev Lewa says herbs and a disciplined lifestyle have played an important role.

“I am a herbal expert. I have helped many people surmount health challenges and have not forgotten myself. Hence, I am not shy to declare myself as fit as a fiddle in my physical and mental faculties,” he says with laughter.

Prof Lewa says his father’s health has improved tremendously in the four years that he has been married to Phyllis. “They are both reverends and true birds of a feather. Dad is proof that elderly folks need trusted partners to walk with deeper into their sunset,” he says.

He describes the three years his father spent groping in lonesomeness after his mother’s departure as “pretty trying” to the entire family.

Born in 1928 in Mukaa, Kilome, Machakos District, to Lewa Manyi and Susana Syekonyo, Rev Lewa was the first of 12 children.

He went to study theology after primary school education to Standard Six level and has mastered practically every verse in the bible.