Back By Popular Demand: The Tender Ghanaian Love Story of Nancy and Ronnie

Ever since FR reported that FBI Senior Forensic Examiner Stephen Flatley was rumored to have gone to Ghana, there has been renewed interest in that land of the hippopotamus, the elephant, and the African giant snail; where the civet and the antelope play, a place where the beautiful Nancy is said to reside after her parents died, living with her grandmother, selling ice-water by the side of the road out of a refrigerator that is often on the blink and requiring money to repair.

It was the land of dreams for my dear friend Ronnie, who sent to Nancy money, doing so for years – about $60,000 so far – to bring her over to this country and to marry her and live happily ever after.

Ronnie Robinson

Ronnie was in his mid 60s when he first fell in love with Nancy, who he has yet to meet, and has spoken to only a few times, but has written a thousand encyclopedias’ worth of text messages, and she to him – expressions of love.

As Nancy told Ronnie:

We was from South Africa and we decided to go and pay a visit to my Grandma in Ghana and unfortunately i lost all my parents (in an auto crash) when they decide to go and buy some items in Royal Mart.

Ronnie has viewed hundreds of her photos, photos she shared only with him, private photos, the kind only a lover should see, and silent videos because they have no audio on their internet in Ghana where Nancy lives.

Ronnie is now 81. He is still in love, and oddly, through he has aged over the 16 years he loved Nancy, she has not aged a bit.

Some women are like that. She is as breathless, young and beautiful, as photos show, as she was 16 years ago.

The difference between Ronnie living well on his retirement income and an inheritance from his mother – of money and a home, free and clear – and his present state, living in a one room apartment in a senior home, without any savings, has been his devotion to Nancy, his support of a poor young woman trying to flee Ghana for 16 years to be with him and love only him.

Ronnie: Can I ask why you love me? 

Nancy: As i told you already that i was looking for an honest man who can love me and care about me and i will also live with him. And you said that i have got a right man. Because you are handsome and you also care about me and i wish to be with you soon because when i set my eyes on you my heart burn like flames it all means that my heart beat for you.

Ronnie: I just want to know in my heart that this will all happen.

Nancy: When i see you my heart become happy.

Ronnie: Ok. I want to make love to you soon

Yes, a love story that echoes on and on.

I remember Ronnie telling me, when his dear blessed mother was still alive, how he and his mom would have dinner with Nancy via Skype.

Ronnie’s mom wanted only one thing before she died, to see Ronnie happily married to a wonderful gal.

Nancy would appear on Skype, looking at them, nodding at times and so attentive while they ate dinner.

Her laughter, though silent, was like, or would be like, an April song, if only we could hear it.

But the video was silent, because, as mentioned above, Nancy’s Skype connection did not have audio capacity due to the backward conditions in Ghana where she lived and sold ice-water by the roadside.

And sometimes the internet was so uncertain that when Ronnie or his mother wanted to see what Nancy was eating or wearing something that would require some specific response from her, the internet suddenly cut out.

Though there was no sound, and sometimes no video, they could still communicate through texts. Throughout dinner, Ronnie’s 95-year-old mother and he ate their macaroni and cheese with bread and butter and canned vegetables. (Carrots were good, but Ronnie did not like peas. They gave him gas, he told Nancy.) Ronnie and Nancy would text back and forth and watch each other on Skype, smiling and lovingly, and Ronnie, with his mom eating and having a grand time, having such a pretty young woman in their kitchen (via Skype) and so in love with Ronnie.

Ronnie would read the texts to his mom, and she approved of this nice young girl who wanted nothing more than to come to the USA and be her daughter-in-law. If only she could get the money to pay lawyers for her expatriation fees.

Ronnie texted:

Mom asks me about you and I don’t know anything. So you need to start to tell me all about Nancy. You never told me only you lived in South Africa and then your parents went to store and died. So start to tell me about you please, so I can tell her.

Nancy wanted her future mother-in-law to know everything about her. Nancy texted:

I was a student and I was trying to be a nurse in the near future when we came to ghana. I made up my mind to further my education so life is unfair to me and I cannot do what I was trying to do in life. Darling you just ask me any question you want and i will answer you.  I am sorry.

Meantime, she needed to eat, and often, in poverty-stricken Ghana, she could not eat, but for Ronnie sending $50 or $100 at a time.

As mentioned above, her refrigerator often broke in the hot Ghanaian sun, and selling ice water was the only way this beautiful girl could keep from starving after her mother and father died in a car accident, and she had to live with her grandmother, and she could not even sell ice water to pay for the basic necessities, but for Ronnie sending her $100 or $150 at a time to fix the refrigerator.

Sometimes Ronnie, who was on a fixed income, could not send money to Nancy when she needed it.

Nancy texted:

Life is unfair to me and i have to leave this unfair world. You and mom are my everything so when you did not help me to be with you soon i will commit suicide.

One day, Nancy told Ronnie, her grandmother died, and she could not pay the death tax.

She texted:

My grandmother she also died with ulcer

Ronnie came forward and paid. It was originally $500, but when Ronnie could not, positively and absolutely, could not pay, the lawyer, whose name is Frank, called on the phone and confirmed with Ronnie that he did not have the money, and Ronnie was about to give up, almost in tears. The compassionate lawyer, Frank, who handled, he said, all of Nancy’s legal affairs, did him one big favor. He waived some burial fees and had the old lady cremated, allowing Ronnie to pay $300,. Ronnie promptly went to Western Union at the local supermarket to pay the fee.

Lawyer Franktexted:

The fee you must pay when somebody die in this country i cannot do any thing for you if you cannot pay. This is the low I can go to help you Mr Ronnie

Even then there was almost a hitch. The Western Union cashier told Ronnie that this was a scam and save his money.

Stunned, he texted Lawyer Frank in Ghana, who told him go marry the Western Union lady then and Nancy would either be in a Ghanaian prison where she would be raped and killed or Lawyer Frank knew another man, not so cheap and parsimonious, who would pay the fee and marry Nancy instead.

Lawyer Frank made Ronnie aware of Mr. Claude Valahousian, a wealthy diamond dealer from South Africa who would save Nancy but he must first have sex with her, then laugh at Ronnie because he could not protect his own fiance.

Ronnie told the Western Union cashier it was legit, he knew the lawyer he was sending the money to, and wired $300.

Nancy was texting him later that day, with love and appreciation, and with additional information that she had not a thing to eat in the house and could he send her $50?

One of the saddest things about the rough and cruel people in Ghana [I hope Flatley is alright] is that they made Nancy pay at every turn.

One time she was hospitalized, and needed $500 to pay her medical bill, or the hospital would not release her.  She would be kept in the hospital, and every day the bill was going up. Ronnie ponied up.

Nancy waited in Ghana for her Ronnie to bring her to the USA.

Now you may wonder why Nancy never came to the USA to marry Ronnie after 16 years. Between the fees and the tariff on the gold bullion she was bringing to Ronnie for her dowry, it was very hard to get her to the USA… It was not so easy, as I will explain in a future post…

In the meantime, as they waited to unite in person, and I hate to be indiscreet, Nancy and Ronnie had Skype sessions of a very private nature. Nancy appeared and did various things, though silently because there was no audio in Ghana, and the internet connection was weak because it often disconnected sometimes at the most inopportune moments when Ronnie asked Nancy to do something very pleasing – so it was frustrating, and Ronnie was not shy on camera either – and they did certain things that only a couple who are engaged ought to do.

And one time it so happened that Ronnie was short on cash and Nancy was dreadfully in need, but he could not get her money. Some varmints, real assholes, somehow got Ronnie’s phone number and called Ronnie and told him they had stolen the videos of him with Nancy from Skype, and they would arrest Nancy for international lewdness, a crime in Ghana punishable by imprisonment or in the alternative a fine of $1000, which Ronnie later settled for $100.

These Ghanaian enforcers of lewdness laws said they had videos of him too, of his onanistic practice with Nancy, and absent a $200 fine, they were going to send the videos of Ronnie to his Facebook friends. That’s when he called me…

Stay tuned for part #2…

Her smile was made of dawn.