To my future mother-in-love

Dearest future mum,

It is with great joy and expectation I write to you dearest future mother-in-love. Yes I prefer to refer to you as my mother-in-love rather than mother-in-law because of the kind of cordial relationship I hope to have with you. Though I do not know you yet but I am surely looking forward to the day when you'd deem me worthy of your son and embrace me warmly in your arms.

I'd love to first of all thank you for birthing and raising a great and wonderful man like my future husband. It sure couldn't have been an easy task but you have done your best in moulding him to be the enviable man he is today. I eagerly look forward to the day when you'd get to hold your grandchildren in your arms (I'm sure it will be one of your best days if not the best). It will be my best gift of appreciation to you

The purpose of my writing is to appreciate you for so many things. The first of which is you instilling in my man the importance of family and people. He carries you, his father and siblings in his heart. He values you all and is yet independent of you all. He is his own man! This is not an easy feat but you taught him freedom, dependence and independence.

I want you to know he lights up my world in a way no other person has. Despite his hard and masculine outlook, he has a very soft and tender heart. He is never afraid to let his emotional and sensitive side show, this endears me more to him because I always know where I stand with him and how things affect him. I know you deserve the credit for raising him to be in touch with his emotions in a world like ours where men are taught to deny and hide their emotions.

Most importantly, you brought him up to respect women! He treats me as his equal in all areas! To him, I am not a weak vessel! He believes so much in my plans, thoughts and their executions. He carries me along in life-changing decisions. He encourages and supports my vision. He is not threatened by but rather celebrate my successes and hold my hands when things go wrong. He defends me to his friends even when I am wrong! Mama! This has your handwriting written all over! I love you so much already even without knowing you yet and for this I owe you a whooping peck during our first meeting.

Mama, I have read, watched and seen so many horrid relationships between mothers and their sons' wives. I however promise such will not be our portion. We are going to have such a swell time together! I'm going to love you just like I do my mother. I am bursting with ideas of the different hanging-out time we are going to have together. I can't wait to start bonding with you. I am positive about our relationship because I love your son to the moon and back already. We will definitely have our not-so-good times but we will weather it together in love.

In conclusion, I know you are his first love and that position will never be competed for. We both hold special spots in his heart and life and I will never compete for yours. Banish the thoughts of we both 'sharing' him because you have brought him well to be a man and a man is 'unsharable'. We both stand perfect in his love.

With love-filled heart from your future daughter,
Oluwamayowa.