acob, an Aira parent to a local throne in Nigeria, got married to this heartthrob, Natalia, a Russian girl. But the lovers’ journey to their marriage was not an easy one, to say the least. This is the captivating love story of Jacob and Natalia....CONTINUE READING THE FULL ARTICLE>>>
As expected of AA parent wedding, Jacob and Natalia’s wedding was a lavish one indeed, with enormous wealth at their disposal. Jacob’s Royal parents spared no dime to celebrate their son’s wedding. The wedding was so lavish that the town’s folk talked about it for months on; they had simply never seen a more pompous wedding ceremony.
But despite the great wedding, Jacob and Natalia’s love story is one filled with major obstacles. Jacob was born the only son of a wealthy local Town King, Chief Joseph Isiah, and his wife, Rita. Hence, Jacob was the era parent to his father’s Throne.
Jacob’s childhood dream had always been to travel outside Nigeria; he simply wanted the thrilling adventure of seeing the world beyond the shores of his native Nigeria. So when Jacob finished his high school in Nigeria at age 19, he began piling pressures on his parents to send him abroad for further studies.
Rita had no qualms about it; she even felt that Jacob’s intended trip would give him the much-needed exposure. But not the king.
Joseph was having none of that; to him, Jacob, as his successor, ought to remain among his people, learning their norms and customs. In the same vein, Joseph felt that as his successor, Jacob should always be by his side, learning the ropes of leadership.
It took almost two whole years before Jacob was able to convince his fathers to sponsor his planned trip, but at long last, the king finally, but reluctantly, agreed.
Jacob was overwhelmed with happiness at his father’s decision; his childhood dream was about to become a reality. Jacob chose to study medicine in Russia; he would only go there to study, nothing more. Little did he know, fate was leading him straight to the love of his life.
Jacob was almost 21 when he finally flew to Russia to begin a new chapter of his life. Jacob had to quickly adapt to life in the strange country once he arrived in Russia and enrolled into a university. First and foremost, there was the language barrier; however, he gradually, but surely learned the basics of the language in a short span of time.
Jacob must have felt quite lonely during his first few years in Russia, until he met Natalia, the stunningly beautiful girl from the little town of Isev.
The duo met in a cafe 4 years after Jacob arrived in Russia, and like they say, opposites attract, so it was simply love at first sight for the dark-skinned Jacob and snow-white Natalia.
Jacob was just spellbound by Natalia’s stunning beauty; he had simply never seen such a beautiful girl all his life. Natalia was Jacob’s MOA Lisa; as for Natalia herself, she fell for Jacob because of his sheer brilliance and amazing personality. To Natalya, Jacob was the perfect gentleman.
Over time, the duo’s friendship blossomed into a full-time romance. Some people must have whispered some unsavory comments about the love birds, but they just didn’t care; they were blindly in love with each other, and that was all that mattered to them. The bond between Jacob and Natalia kept on growing stronger; their love defied race, it knew no bounds.
Meanwhile, just like Eddie Murphy did to Lisa in the multiple award-winning movie “Coming to America,” Jacob, in his own “coming to Russia,” hid his royal status away from Natalia.
He simply wanted a girl that would love him for who he was, not for his royalty and inheritance. Back in his village, Jacob had learned the hard way; he had never been in a fulfilling relationship, as most of the girls were only with him because of what they could get.
As for his last relationship before leaving for Russia, he had found out that the girl hadn’t been attracted to him at all; she had simply accepted him, hoping to be Queen someday.
The girl had been pressuring Jacob to propose to her before leaving for Russia; however, something about her just didn’t sit right with Jacob, and that’s when he decided to do some digging.
Lo and behold, he found out she had been messing around with some village guy she truly loved. Jacob had found out that the man was her first love and childhood friend. So, that whole relationship hurt Jacob so bad that he decided to hide his royal status from other women.
But even though Jacob hid his status from Natalia, he was certain that she genuinely loved him so much so that he proposed to her just a few months after they began dating. Months later, Natalia took Jacob home to introduce him to her parents as her fiancé.
Natalia’s humble, easygoing parents had no problems at all accepting Jacob as their future son-in-law; anything that would make their daughter happy was okay with them.
After this visit, the couple decided it was Jacob’s turn to do the same. Hence, during a long vacation from school, Jacob decided to take Natalia back home to Nigeria with him to meet his parents, and that was when their problems began.
Natalia immediately noticed Jacob’s royal status once the duo arrived in Nigeria for the vacation and formal introduction. She was stunned by all the displays of sheer wealth and opulence she witnessed at Jacob’s family home.
Natalia was also wowed by the Nigerian experience; the cheerful but noisy locals, the busy streets, the eye-catching roadside foods, the motorcycle drivers meandering through heavy traffic like they had already signed their death warrants.
Then, of course, there was the nerve-wracking heat. But all these culture shocks were not the major problem for Natalia; her major problem was how she was being treated like an outsider by Jacob’s family.
It was only Jacob’s mom, Rita, who seemed to accept the humble and kind-hearted Natalia as her future daughter-in-law; other members of Jacob’s family treated Natalia with plain disgust. Joseph, the king, was particularly incensed at his son for coming home with a foreign fiancé.
“I sent you to Russia to get the best of medical studies money can afford, Jacob, not to bring home a foreign girl with you!” the king thundered at Jacob at the very first day he arrived back home with Natalia.
“I don’t care whether you love her or not; as the next king of Ogoniland, custom demands that you must marry a local girl who must not have been with any man,” the king continued.
Joseph was still speaking when his son harshly cut him off, telling him he didn’t care about some outdated customs; he would marry Natalia, and that was all there was to it. Before his father could reply, he stormed off. From that day forth, Joseph decided to make life a living hell for Natalia throughout her stay in Nigeria.
He became openly hostile to her, never hiding his utter disgust for her. Moreover, Joseph introduced all his retinue of Palace servants and attendants to treat Natalia with the worst form of ill-treatment they could muster.
All the palace’s attendants were real thorns in the flesh of Natalia; throughout the one month that she stayed in Jacob’s family home, none of them ever greeted her.
And whenever she did greet any of them, the person would just ignore her like she wasn’t there. Moreover, they never attended to her in any form or manner; they simply ignored her, even when she asked them a question as simple as where to get water or other essentials in the palace.
The palace attendant simply treated Natalia like an outsider, like some unwanted guest who had overstayed her welcome.
She would always overhear the palace attendants call her ugly names such as “white witch” and “gold digger.” Whenever she passed by, those ill-treatments severely hurt Natalia, and she would always bitterly complain about them to Jacob.
Jacob would always assure Natalia that his father and accomplices would soon get tired of their antics and finally accept her as his future wife. But the exact opposite was the very opposite, as the maltreatments metered out on Natalia from the palace attendance seemed to increase by the day.
One Sunday morning, Jacob had driven Natalia to church. After the church service, Jacob had dropped Natalia off at the gates.
She was already worn out as a result of the severe hot afternoon weather, which she was not yet fully accustomed to. Then Jacob had hurried off to the market to purchase the foodstuffs and essentials that they both needed for the week.
The exhausted Natalia, who was dying to go inside the house and have a cold shower and the much-needed rest, promptly rang the gatebell. The security guard appeared at once, opened the peephole section of the gates, and peered at Natalia for a while.
Then he quickly closed the peephole and returned to whatever it was he was doing without opening the gate. Natalia was stunned beyond belief, so she quickly rang the bell again.
But this time, the security guard didn’t even bother to appear at the peephole again. Natalia spent almost the next hour ringing the bell, but all to no avail. At last, the really exhausted Natalia sat down on a raised platform and almost fell asleep out of sheer exhaustion.
Barely an hour later, Rita came outside the gate, and that was when she found Natalia sitting there. Rita went red with anger at once; she screamed at the security guard. The guard was about to explain that he was just following the king’s orders, but Rita was no longer listening.
She gently pulled Natalia up and took her inside the palace at once. Rita then offered Natalia help to freshen up with a bucket of ice-cold water and a clean towel. Natalia amply thanked her for her kindness but turned down the offer and retired to her room.
When Jacob returned in the evening, Natalia didn’t even mention a word of what had happened to him. But she had a plan, a secret plan. She had had enough from Jacob’s father and his attendants; Natalia just couldn’t take it anymore. So she had decided to leave for Russia the following day without even telling Jacob.
The following morning, Jacob kissed Natalia on the forehead as usual before he stepped out of the house. His family had a huge hectare of farmland with hundreds of workers in the village, and since Jacob had come back home, his father forced him to visit and supervise the farmland every morning. Jacob, being the obedient son that he was, obeyed his father.
So he would always leave for the farmlands in the mornings and come back in the late afternoons. If only Jacob had known that Joseph had ulterior motives about sending him to the farms. Joseph simply wanted his son out of the house as often as possible so his attendant would keep tormenting Natalia.
So, that particular morning that Jacob had left for the farm, Natalia quickly dashed to their room and packed her stuff. Then she slipped out of the palace with her bag and boarded a taxi.
The taxi took her on a 3-hour trip to the local airport in the neighboring city. From the local airport, Natalia flew to Lagos, where she spent 3 days in a hotel. 4 days after she left the palace, Natalia was on a flight bound for Moscow, Russia.
Imagine Jacob’s utter horror when he returned back home that afternoon and his love, Natalia, was nowhere to be found. Worse off, all Natalia’s stuff was gone too. Jacob was stunned beyond belief, so he immediately dropped the bag he was carrying on the bed.
The bag was laden with local delicacies he had brought for Natalia from the market. Just as Jacob dropped the bag, a white piece of paper lying on the bed caught his attention.
The note was from Natalia, simply informing him that she was fed up with his family’s harsh treatments; hence she was returning back home, and that she needed some space. After reading the short note, Jacob flung the paper away and stormed over to his mom’s room.
Jacob stammered to his mom about Natalia’s note. Rita quickly figured out that Natalia must have decided to leave after the locking-out incident the previous day, so she simply narrated everything that had happened to her son. Jacob didn’t even allow Rita to finish her narration before he stormed into his father’s Palace Hall.
The king was receiving some VIPs at that very moment, but Jacob didn’t even care. He stormed right towards his father and in a venom-filled voice harshly demanded why he gave his attendance the direction to torment Natalia.
Joseph was stunned beyond words at his son’s audacity, but when he recovered himself, he simply said, “Yes, because as my successor, tradition demands that you pick a local girl as a wife, not some whites.”
Jacob rudely interrupted his father and thundered at him, “Look father, I’m ready to sacrifice the throne for Natal, and if you don’t accept her as your daughter-in-law, then I’m never going to step foot in this country again, never! Mark my words!”
With that, Jacob stormed out of the hall just like he had come in, much to the bewilderment of his father’s dignitaries. As for Joseph, he kept shouting in obvious anger, “Come back here, Jacob!” But Jacob was gone. Jacob packed his stuff and flew to Lagos that very afternoon; 5 days later, he was on a flight to Moscow, Russia.
It was late evening, and Natalia was preparing to go to bed when she heard a knock on her door. She quickly opened the door, and standing right there was none other than the love of her life, Jacob. The love birds stood there for a while, staring at each other.
Then Natalia suddenly turned away sharply and went into her room. Jacob followed closely behind her, and as Natalia turned towards him, Jacob pleaded with Natalia to forgive his father for all the ill treatments he and his attendants had subjected her to. Natalia said nothing; she just stood there and stared down at him.
Then Jacob said, “I’ve decided to give up my right to the throne just for you, my love.” That revelation really did melt something inside Natalia’s heart. “You did what, Jacob?” she shouted in sheer shock. And when he told her again, Natalia was crying mildly now.
She really did love this young man, and he had just proven to her how much he loved her and valued her. The love birds flew to each other at once and hugged tightly. They remained in that tight embrace for what seemed like ages, with both professing their undying love for each other.
Barely 2 months later, Jacob’s father called him one night and apologized to him for the way he had treated Natalia. He further told him that even though he would be breaking tradition by doing so, he had finally decided to accept Natalia as a daughter-in-law.
Jacob was overwhelmed with happiness; he profusely thanked his father and made a mental note to thank and hug his mother, as he was sure she had something to do with his father’s change of hearts.
He wasn’t wrong, you see. Joseph had initially vowed never to accept Natalia into the family, but after consistent pressure from Rita, who would often accuse Joseph of chasing her only son, Joseph had no other choice but to finally give in. Besides, he saw how much his son loved Natalia, so he decided to let him have his way.
Barely a month later, Jacob returned home to Nigeria with Natalia for their lavish wedding. One year later, the new couple welcomed their first son, whom they named Jago Max; he looked very much like Jacob, while he had Natalia’s eyes. Everyone adored the little prince.
After some time, the couple welcomed a daughter, whom they named Zara; this little angel was the perfect mix of her dad and mom’s physical attributes. The couple currently live in Nigeria; Jacob continues his work at the farm and palace.
He does everything within his power to give his family the best life ever. As for Natalia, she maintains a personal blog on Instagram; she creates lifestyle content about what entails to be married to a Nigerian and raise kids in Nigeria.
There are still so many naysayers expecting the couple’s marriage to crash, as they believe that their love is transactional. However, Jacob and Natalia are doing their best to prove them wrong; their love story defied race and conquered age-long traditions.
What is the greatest sacrifice you have made for love? What do you think about Jacob and Natalia’s love story..<<CONTINUE READING>>
