Isle I Do: Antonio and Janelle
They have come a long way. Janelle, a police officer, remembers those days when there was something about this particular policeman that “used to make me mad” as she observed this colleague interacting with other police officers.
He was observing her, too, and was in time to hear her discussing her search for an apartment with a friend, when he interrupted and offered to help. Janelle spurned the offer.
Antonio, however, fancied her.
One day he threw out bait, offering “to fill out the application” for the boyfriend whom he by now assumed Janelle needed. She brushed him off, but deep inside her, a spark of interest had been ignited.
“Months passed by, then spontaneously this feeling came over me and I felt an urge to get to know him better,” Janelle said.
She gave her telephone number to a friend to be passed on to Antonio.
To her surprise, he called and they had a date at the movies. The spark was quickly flaming and the two began seeing a lot of each other outside of work.
Janelle would soon discover, however, that her suspicions about Antonio’s roving eye were real. “He was the macho type who liked a lot of girls. I was looking for someone to settle down with,” she said.
She vowed to tame this “wild” man, a resolve that turned out to be a battle that she sometimes thought she would lose, especially after she moved in with him.
Janelle said: “It was hard for him having to forsake the single, carefree lifestyle”. And Antonio agreed: “I used to do a lot of flirting. It was like taking a lion from the wild.”
But he learnt the hard way. Janelle picked up her belongings and left him, returning to her rented apartment which she still maintained.
During that impasse the two recalled being like “two bulls on a stand-off” and once again Antonio realised “I like my freedom”. But that was short-lived. Persuaded by friends, he reconciled with Janelle, presenting her with her favourite flower – a rose.
He had found her Achilles’ heel. Janelle melted, immediately forgave Antonio, and returned to his apartment with her still unpacked belongings that same night.
That would not be the last flirtation. Antonio “kept slipping up”, and though the infidelity tore at Janelle’s heart, she stayed, preferring to focus on the good aspects of the relationship. That was until she discovered an intimate text message on Antonio’s phone. They had by now been six months into a serious relationship, she was now sharing his home (for the economic sense it made as well as for the sake of being a couple).
Janelle recalled “that night brought it to the brink . . . right to the edge”. After the heated argument that resulted from her discovery, she broke into tears, seemingly never-ending tears and that continued to flow all night to the point where Antonio became concerned.
That was the turning point. Suddenly he saw the folly of his ways and realised how much he was hurting the woman he really loved.
“I had to weigh the odds,” he remarked.
“I told myself I have someone here who always has my back.” He relented. Having been brought up in the Seventh Day Adventist Church, Antonio decided it was time for a spiritual relationship and he started taking Janelle to church with him. Together they prayed for the strength of the relationship, though at that point, Janelle was a member of another denomination. They prayed together and shared Bible readings every morning.
Antonio’s commitment truly manifested itself last August when Janelle underwent surgery. At home from the hospital, unable to help herself, she found Antonio readily stepping into the role of care-giver, rising at 5 a.m. to bathe her, prepare breakfast for the two of them before leaving for work. Seven long weeks of recuperation helped Janelle to see “the serious side” of the man she had grown to love. She acknowledged: “He had to give up a lot; he stopped liming with his friends to stay home and take care of me.”
