Afua & Todd
met upstate New York at SUNY Oswego in February of 1996.
They were introduced to each other
by Todd’s fraternity brother Yorick
who informed Afua that she had a secret admirer
that wanted to meet her.
So, Yorick arranged
for Afua and her girlfriend, Velda to meet him and Todd in his dorm. It
was an interesting meeting
to say the least. Afua
was a Freshman and Todd was a Junior. They
didn’t start dating until Afua’s Sophomore year in September of 1996. Over
the summer break,
they kept in touch via phone and would occasionally go out on dates. When the two
got back to school in fall of 1996, they began dating
exclusively.
Afua remembers vividly that it was her senior year in
college when she realized that Todd
was the one. They were on winter break and Todd had organized a surprised 21st birthday at her mom’s
home. She felt like the happiest
girl in the world
because he had orchestrated this event
with her family and friends to show his love
for her. It was then, she felt God had
put Todd in her life for a
purpose and that was to be her
husband.
After college, Afua moved to Pennsylvania to attend Temple
University’s MBA program
and had to deal with a long
distance relationship away from
Todd. The couple would try to see each other as frequently as possible but working and going to school full time
made it difficult. They managed to persevere through the distance and support each other in their educational and career endeavors. In the summer of 2000, Todd
relocated to his company’s office
in Pennsylvania so that they could be close.
In April of 2004 Todd proposed during the walk-thru of their first home purchase
in Pennsylvania. Afua
was surprised and didn’t know that Todd along with his mom had met
with her Dad, Mom and older brother to ask for her hand
in marriage. With
Afua’s Ghanaian roots,
it was customary to get the
blessing of the bride-to-be’s parents
and siblings. During their engagement, they would attend church frequently and formed a great bond with the church family
in Bensalem, PA. It was then that
Todd decided to get baptized and become a faithful member of the
church.
On August 21, 2005,
on a hot summer day at
Pines Manor in Edison, New Jersey, before God, family and friends, they were united
as man and wife in a beautiful ceremony.
In August 2012, they will be married for 7 years
and have been together for almost 16 years. All thanks to
Todd’s fraternity brother, Yorick.
Afua and Todd have 2 children together,
Michael Jayden (who is
4 years old) and Joelle Madelynn (who will
be 1 year old in June). They
also have Taylor and Quincy from Todd’s previous
relationship who live in
Richmond, VA.
Their marriage mantra
is to keep God first and everything will follow. It’s important
to have something other
than just yourselves that you believe
in and can turn to in
difficult times. They pray
together, go to church together
regularly and make sure to give thanks to God through their church all the time.
The couple advises young families to always make time for each other. In the busy life of work
and family, couples tend to
lose sight of the things
that made them fall in love with each other. So,
be sure to make
date nights a priority in your marriage.
Todd was born in
Harlem, NY but raised in Spring Valley, Rockland County.
Afua was born in Accra,
Ghana (West Africa)
and raised until age 8 ½ when
she came to New York with
her parents and grandmother. Todd is aProject Manager/Lead for pharmaceutical firm.
Afua is a Business Analysis
Manager for an insurance firm.
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