Nashauna Drummond, Acting Lifestyle Coordinator

Newly-weds Melisa and Kishon embrace at their wedding reception.

In Christmas of 2000, Melisa Smith accompanied her friend to Clarendon for the weekend. For the entire journey, her friend kept talking about her uncle Kishon. This piqued Melisa's curiosity and she became very anxious to meet him.

When she did, she thought he was cute and cool. They got along well and kept in touch when she returned to Kingston.

Make it work

A few months later, he turned up at her gate. They decided they would try to make a relationship work. It didn't, but in the summer of 2002 while he was in New York, a virtual connection was made. They sent email back and forth every day.

"I would rush into work early in the mornings so that we could speak on MSN before the system went down. We never looked back since then," gushed the new bride, her voice saturated with newly-wed bliss.

Proposal

Kishon, who works at RBTT, proposed to Melisa, a clerical officer at Jamaica Customs, on her birthday last November.

They went to Ocho Rios and he told her he had a surprise for her that she would get at dinner. However, Kishon got shy and changed his plans.

"I saw him searching under the bed, then he gave me a pair of earrings. It was a pair that I had wanted, so I was very happy. I thought the second part was a bracelet to go with it. Then he went under the bed and brought out the little black box. He was on his knee, he opened it and I saw the ring and started screaming," recalled Melisa, who seemed on the verge of another scream, her voice laced with joy.

The ring

"I totally forgot that he was there on his knee; I was just focused on the ring. I said yes and ran to my sister's room which was two rooms away. And she said, "so this is what the screaming was about."

Melisa said what she loves most about her husband is that he's very ambitious. "That gives me the drive, that he wants to make it in life. He's also very caring," she quickly added, as happy as any new bride would be.

The couple got married at the Waltham Park New Testament Church of God. The ceremony was officiated by Revs. Lennox Walker and Donald Roberts. The couple honeymooned in Montego Bay.

Melisa Walker and her husband Kishon as they entered their wedding reception at the Knutsford Court Hotel. - Contributed photos