At age 20, I was severely burned in a kitchen gas explosion.
My face, neck and back were marked.
Since then, no man has ever truly looked at me without pity or fear.
Until I met Obinna — a blind music teacher.
He didn’t see my scars. He only heard my voice. He felt my goodness. He loved me for who I am.
We dated for a year. And he proposed to me.
Everyone made fun of me:
“You married him because he can’t see how ugly you are!”
But I smiled:
“I’d rather marry a man who sees my soul than one who judges my skin.”
Our wedding was simple, beautiful, and filled with live music from her students.
She was wearing a high-necked dress that covered everything.
But for the first time in my life, I didn’t feel ashamed.
I felt seen—not with eyes, but with love.
That night we entered our small apartment.
He slowly ran his hands over my fingers, my face… my arms.
And then he whispered:
“You are even more beautiful than I imagined.”
I cried.
Until his next words changed everything.
“I’ve seen your face before.”
I froze.
“Obinna… you are blind.”
He nodded slowly.
“It was. But three months ago, after delicate eye surgery in India, I started seeing shadows. Then shapes. Then faces. But I didn’t tell anyone—not even you.”
My heart was beating fast.
“Because?”
He replied:
“Because I wanted to love you without the noise of the world. Without pressure. Without seeing you—the way they did.”
“But when I saw your face… I cried. Not because of your scars—but because of your strength.”
It turned out he saw me… and still chose me.
Obinna’s love was not born of blindness—but of courage.
Today I walk with confidence.
Because I was seen by the only eyes that truly matter — the ones that looked beyond my pain.
Episode 2: The Woman in the Garden
The next morning, I woke to the soft murmur of Obinna tuning his guitar. Sunlight filtered through the window, casting delicate shadows on the wall. For a moment, I forgot everything—the pain, the scars, the fear. I was a wife. I was loved.
But something kept lingering on my mind.
“I’ve seen your face before.”
Those words. That voice. The truth he carried and the secret he’d kept.
I sat up.
“Obinna… was that really the first time you saw my face that night?”
He stopped, his fingers still on the strings.
“No,” he admitted softly. “The first time I really saw you… was two months ago.”
Two months?
“Where?”
Her voice was barely a whisper.
“There’s a garden near your office. I used to wait there after my therapies, just to listen to the birds… and sometimes, the people passing by.”
I remembered that place. I often sat there after work to cry. To breathe. To be invisible.
“One afternoon, I saw a woman sitting on the bench across the hall. She was wearing a headscarf. Her face was averted. But then… a child walked by and dropped a toy. She picked it up and smiled.”
He continued:
“And in that moment… the sunlight touched her scars. But I didn’t see scars. I saw warmth. I saw beauty amid the pain. I saw you.”
Tears streamed down my cheeks.
“So you knew?”
“I wasn’t sure… not entirely. Until I got closer. You were humming. That same tune you always sing when you’re nervous. That’s when I knew it was you.”
“So… why didn’t you say anything?”
He put down his guitar and sat down next to me.
“Because I wanted to be sure my heart still heard you louder than my eyes could see.”
I broke down.
I had spent years hiding from the world, believing that love was a light I no longer deserved.
And there he was—seeing me when I didn’t want to be seen. Loving me without me having to fix myself.
“I’m scared, Obinna,” I whispered.
He took my hands.
“I had it too,” he said. “But you gave me a reason to open my eyes. Let me be your reason to keep them open, too.”
That day we walked to the same garden — hand in hand.
For the first time, I took off my headscarf in public.
And for the first time…
I didn’t flinch when the world stared back at me.
Episode 3: The Photographer’s Secret
The photo album arrived a week after our wedding.
It was a surprise gift from Obinna’s students — a collection of spontaneous photos from our big day, wrapped in gold ribbon and with warm wishes.
I hesitated to open it.
I wasn’t sure I wanted to see what the world saw that day. What the camera captured beneath my high-neck dress and my rehearsed smile.
But Obinna insisted.
“Let’s see our love through their eyes,” he said.
So we sat on the living room rug, flipping through the pages.
The first photos made me smile—our first dance, his fingers running over my palm, my veil billowing as he whispered something to me that made me laugh.
Then we come to that photo.
The one that left me breathless.
It wasn’t posed. It wasn’t retouched.
She was pure.
I stood by the window, my eyes closed, the sunlight casting soft shadows on my face. A single tear trickled down my cheek.
I didn’t know someone was watching me.
But someone did.
There was something written in small print under the photo:
“Strength wears scars like medals.”
— Tola, Photographer
Obinna touched the corner of the page and said,
“That’s the one I’m going to frame.”
I swallowed.
“Don’t… don’t you want the picture where I’m smiling?”
He looked at me.
“No. That photo is beautiful. But this one is honest. This one reminds me how far you’ve come. And how far we’ll go.”
I hugged the album to my chest and nodded.
Later that night, I called the photographer.
“Tola?” I asked nervously.
A warm voice answered. “Yes, it’s me.”
“I just wanted to thank you… for what you wrote.”
There was a pause, then a soft sigh.
“You may not remember me,” she said. “But four years ago, you helped me at a market. I was pregnant. I fainted. People walked right past me… except you.”
I gasped.
“I didn’t really see your face then,” he continued. “Just your voice. Your kindness. That stayed with me.”
The line went silent.
Then she said:
“So when I saw you at the wedding… I knew I was photographing a woman who had no idea how beautiful she really was.”
I hung up and cried.
Not from pain.
But of the healing I never thought I would find.
Because every time I thought I was invisible…
Someone had been watching me.
And remembering.
