We’ve all seen the movies where the boy and girl grow up as friends in a small town. Then one moves away to New York City and they lose touch, but years later they cross paths, and surprisingly, the unforeseen happens; they fall in love and live happily ever after.
We love those movies and cry happy tears at the end, but we all know that only happens in the movies. Well, it usually does, except every once in a blue moon, fairy tales actually do come true.
This is Everton and Simone's fairy tale.....
But before we get to the happy ending, you know there’s always a wicked witch or dragon or evil knight that has to be fought and killed before the prince gets the princess. So, it wouldn’t be a fairy tale if we didn’t first introduce the protagonist in the story that tried to keep the prince from getting the princess.
***
“This man is going to kill you.”
The people in the village warned Everton’s mother that if she didn’t leave his father, that one day he would kill her. The warning wasn’t without warrant.
Growing up in St. Lucia it was acceptable for men to be domineering, and the fact that Everton's father was a successful and well-respected contractor and farmer in St. Lucia, only seemed to cause people to overlook the obvious even more.
Everyone could see the danger, but no one dared intervene. Like the time his father smashed a beer bottle over his mother’s head and drug her out of a bar because he thought she should have been home when he got home from his late night drinking (To this day she still bears the scar); or the time he stomped on his wife's back when she was pregnant with Everton, simply because he didn't like the people she'd invited to their son's christening.
Everyone saw the warning signs of impending death. Even the mother of Everton's father warned her daughter-in-law to leave her son. “If you don’t leave him, he’s going to kill you."
One day, his mother finally decided to heed the warning and leave. However, before she could leave, she and her husband got into a disagreement and he dragged her into the sea to drown her.
Through gasps of air, she cried out for her life. “Why are you doing this to me? I am the mother of your sons!”
By the grace of God, he pulled her out of the water and let her go, but Everton's mother knew this would be her last chance. She escaped to the nearby island, Martinique, and sent six-year-old Everton and his brother to live with their grandmother on their dad's side. They lived there a couple of years until his dad came to disrupt things again.
The house his grandmother lived in had been left to her by her husband who had moved to England. However, Everton’s dad told her she needed to sell the house because he wanted his share of the inheritance. This left his grandmother with no place to live, so she had to move into another part of the village, far from locals.
This meant Everton and his brother had to walk for miles to get back and forth to school and the grocery store. As a result, Everton and his brother had to move back with his dad.
“This is when all hell broke loose,” says Everton. "My dad had remarried and had more kids with his new wife, and I could do nothing right. He would slam me in the head with a pot, and his wife would do it too.”
One day Everton came home from school and his dad noticed that his backpack had broken. “It was a cheap, plastic backpack,” says Everton. But that didn’t stop his dad from busting his head open with a broom stick.
"I thought, 'this man is going to kill me, but I can’t go anywhere’,” Everton recalls. At one point, he slammed a mirror on Everton’s head. Pieces of glass shattered everywhere, causing him to be rushed to the hospital from injuries.
Unfortunately, he wouldn’t see his mother again until a couple years later when she came to visit him. "She gave me fifty cents and said, 'Take this and buy whatever you want. It’s all I have.’ That was the best memory I have of my mother,” says Everton.
She then told him, “I heard what your father is doing and I’m going to get you out of here. I have a plan to take you to the United States." However, it would be a number of years before Everton would make it to the U.S. In the meantime, he would have to endure the hardships not meant for childhood.
The final straw with his father came when he was 11 years old. Everton had gone to the post office to pick up a letter from Barbados on behalf of his father. When he got home his father asked him, “Who opened this?”
“I don’t know. It came like that,” Everton said, but his dad didn't like that answer. So, he dragged Everton to the post office to ask them if the letter had been opened. The post office denied the letter was already opened. Everton knew his dad’s fury awaited him when they got home.
“Tell me again. Who opened this letter?” his father demanded.
“I don’t know,” Everton pleaded.
Immediately, he took Everton’s right hand and put it in a pot of boiling water on the fire. Again, he interrogated, “Who opened this letter?”
“I don’t know,” Everton cried. Still, his father refused to take his hand out of the boiling water. Finally, in desperation Everton screamed, “I did it.”
“I said yes, just so he would stop,” says Everton.
Just like his mother, it was clear if Everton didn’t leave, his father would eventually kill him too. At this point, he went to go live with his grandmother, on his mother’s side. However, with his grandmother being unable to work, it meant the brunt of the farm work rested on Everton’s 11-year-old shoulders. This wasn't even including the additional work he was doing on his uncle and father's farms as well.
Eventually, the farm work became too much, and at the age of 13 he dropped out of school and worked full-time on the farm taking care of his grandmother, younger brother and three younger cousins.
These responsibilities forced Everton at an early age to learn how to be a hard worker. To help with the financial burdens placed on him, he also worked in construction, did tailoring on the side; and eventually with a piece of land given to him by his father, he went on to be a successful farmer, harvesting his crops weekly.
***
Meanwhile, on the other side of the neighborhood, a spunky girl named Simone was sleeping on her mother’s concrete floor listening to Everton and his girlfriend chatting outside her window.
Why is he doing all the talking and she never talks? Simone wondered.
(Simone as a young girl.)
She had known Everton since she was 11 years old and he was 16, when Simone’s mother led him to Christ.
They saw each other at church and neighborhood gatherings, and would cross paths many times throughout the years as Everton dated the close friend of Simone’s sister, and later on Simone dated Everton’s cousin.
(Everton with Simone's sister.)
When Simone was only five, her father migrated to England for work, as a means to help his family. As a result, her mom was left with the burden of raising the kids alone. This meant that at times Simone's family would be short on food since they had no personal garden and occasionally her mom would be out of work. However, time and again, God would use Everton to drop off food from his farm when her family was without.
Everton’s generosity was greatly appreciated. However, that still didn’t stop Simone from making fun of him in church.
“I thought he was goofy,” she says.
As the years passed and Everton’s girlfriends would change, Simone would continue to wonder what these girls saw in the goofy boy who she thought talked too much. It never crossed either one of their minds to view each other as anything other than mutual acquaintances.
So, when Simone and her family moved to New York City when she was 16 and Everton moved to St. Croix, there were no long, drawn out goodbyes. They both just went their separate ways and neither thought much about the other, until years later when Simone answered the phone and it was Everton.
He was going to be the best man in Simone’s sister’s wedding and was calling to speak to her sister, but got an unfamiliar voice on the line.
“Who is this?” he asked.
“Simone”
“You sound so grown up,” he said.
“Who are you talking to? We all grow up,” she boisterously proclaimed.
He may have been surprised by how grown she sounded, but not by her usual sassiness. Having grown up in a culture where men dominated over women, Simone had seen her fair share of mistreatment against women on the island, where there were no repercussions for the men.
This, along with the absence of her father in the home, put a strong distaste in her mouth for men, and it was the driving force behind her becoming what she describes as a feminist, and her zeal to succeed in America.
She had gone from a failing student in St. Lucia to being awarded the “most improved student” who graduated ninth in her class and received all her high school credits in two and a half years. Her goal was to pursue law, so she could go back to the Caribbean to prosecute these men she despised.
So, in her eyes, Everton was just another man, in which she had no problem asserting herself. After making that clear, they made some small talk and caught up on one another’s lives.
Everton was doing well for himself. He had not only learned to read, (he was illiterate until the age of 18, due to missing so much school), but he was also learning English and studying architecture.
After reconnecting, they vowed to stay in touch. A few years later when Everton had joined the Army and wanted some advice on a girl he was dating, it seemed only natural that he call Simone.
“You should marry her,” she said.
However, a few months later when Everton called her back to tell her he was engaged, he was surprised by her response.
“You’re very quiet. Aren’t you happy for me?” he quizzed.
“I am happy. Of course I am. I’m the one that told you to do it,” she snapped.
“You don’t sound very happy.”
Simone quickly ended the call and tried to convince herself she was happy for him, but she couldn’t figure out why she was having all these mixed emotions. A few days later she had a dream where Everton had come to see her from deployment.
In the dream he came onto a stage where Simone was singing during a youth rally. She asked him, “What are you doing here? I thought you were on deployment?” He responded, “I came to ask you to marry me.”
“Marry you? I don’t even like you. You’re engaged,” she stated, walking out of the church.
Suddenly, a girl came running after her. “What are you doing? He’s you’re husband!”
Simone turned around and Everton was standing there. “What are you doing here?” she asked. “You’re my wife. This is our house,” he answered, standing in front of a yellow town house in a wooded community.
When Simone woke up, she was pondering this dream when she suddenly remembered a word she had received at church a few months prior, in which the person told her, “God has called you to be a woman of God. He is going to take you through a pruning process because your husband needs a woman of God.”
Could Everton be the man they were talking about? she wondered.
It seemed like a strange series of coincidences, considering prior to that word she’d had no desire whatsoever to get married. In fact, after they gave her the word, she left the church feeling mad, because she didn’t want to get married.
However, the strangest thing happened after she received that word. She had a strong urge to get married. And now there was this dream about Everton.
Could he be the one? But how? He was engaged to get married to someone else.
A few days later Simone was on the phone with Everton.
“I had a dumb dream the other night,” she said. “I dreamt we were married.”
“That’s not a dumb dream,” he said.
“Yes it is. You’re engaged.”
“Well…technically I am not engaged,” he answered.
Everton began explaining to her that his supposed fiancé had told him she didn’t want to get married for at least five years, and he’d been told by his pastor that she hadn’t been wearing her engagement ring. Not only that, but friends and family had advised him against the marriage.
Shortly thereafter, Everton told Simone he was coming to New York “Why are you coming to New York?" Simone asked.
“Because you’re beautiful. You’re a hard worker. You’re a woman of God….and I love you.”
The phone got silent.
“Are you there?” he asked.
Another moment of silence passed. Everton began to wonder if he'd made a mistake by telling his longtime friend that he loved her.
Suddenly, Simone burst out, “I love you too!”
A few weeks later, Simone was anxiously waiting at the airport for Everton to arrive, when she saw a guy that resembled Everton, but she thought, Surely, that’s not him! That guy is all beat up.
They hadn’t seen each other since teenagers, so she wasn’t sure, but the closer he got, sure enough, it was him. He had just gotten back from boot camp and was looking "rough", says Simone.
She nervously smiled and waved, and he casually waved back, but right when she was about to approach him, he walked right passed her.
Miffed, Simone yelled, “Everton!”
Embarrassed, Everton turned around and walked back over to Simone. “Oh my, it’s you,” he said. “Yes, it’s me,” she replied curtly.
“The twenty-minute bus ride home felt more like two hours,” says Simone. “I couldn’t wait to get away from this guy.”
However, once they got home, her whole family excitedly embraced him. “They loved him,” she says. The next day they went to the park to talk, and after hours of catching up, he kissed her.
“I realized, I really do love this guy,” she says.
(Everton and Simone.)
However, not too long after, Everton deployed to Kuwait in preparation for the Iraqi war. During this deployment Everton and Simone exchanged constant letters.
Finally, after eight long months of deployment, Everton made it home before Christmas. He had a special gift for her….he was asking her to marry him. And just like in the dream he proposed to her during the youth rally.
But the marriage would have to wait. Five weeks later, Everton was deployed again. He would spend another eight months in the Middle East, fighting the Iraqi war. But that wouldn’t stop Everton and Simone from doing everything possible to stay in touch.
Sometimes, that meant Everton had to spend hours waiting in line just to get access to a phone, only to have the call get disconnected a couple minutes later. With his deployment plans getting changed five times, their wedding plans had come to a halt. However, after a long-awaited separation, Simone finally got the call that Everton’s plane had lifted off the ground and he was headed home.
They were both so excited. Then, Simone got another call later that night.....
Her brother had been shot, only hours after Everton left Kuwait.
“I was so excited that Everton was coming home from war not being killed, and then my brother is shot right here at home in Brooklyn,” she says.
Someone from a rival gang that her brother had been dabbling in, had come to take him out; and now her brother was flatlining on the hospital bed.
“In the name of Jesus, come forth Titus!” Simone’s mother commanded. Suddenly, Titus came back.
“Somebody help me!” he was screaming. “I’m so thirsty. Somebody bring me water.” Titus began frantically telling them that he had been falling into hell, when suddenly he saw the hands of Jesus pull him out.
Simone and her family knew without a shadow of doubt that her mom’s prayers had been the lifeline that saved him. However, the nurse on staff wasn’t so convinced and she was confused how he could be thirsty, given that he was on an IV. Disturbed, the nurse told them they needed to leave.
Right after they left, her brother says he saw a dark figure standing next to him that said, “Come on. It’s time to go.” Fearfully he responded, “I’m not going with you.” Afraid that if he fell asleep, he would be snatched back into hell, he stayed awake until his mom came back to the hospital.
As always, she let him know that the answer was Jesus. Right then and there he gave his heart to Christ. Her mother's strong faith, would be the very thing that Simone would later use in her marriage when faced with her own trials.
***
Two months after the war, Simone and Everton got married. It was then that she was reminded of her dream and knew God’s hand was in this marriage. Her maid of honor was the woman in the dream who told her that Everton was her husband; but what made it so prophetic was at the time of the dream, the girl was just a casual acquaintance.
Not only that, but in the dream, Everton had just gotten home from deployment when he asked her to marry him; and that’s exactly what happened when he proposed to her.
Now, as she was getting ready to move into the house that Everton had chosen for them to live at on base, it was the exact yellow house in her dream. This confirmation from God would be needed in the years to come when long periods of separation from deployment would take its toll on their marriage, as it does many service members.
On one particular deployment in Iraq, Everton had been selected along with a group of his comrades to go out on a mission. However, only moments later he was told, “You’re not going now.”
Two hours later someone came on the radio, “We have four guys KIA.”
Everton began crying. He knew this would have been him if God had not intervened and miraculously saved his life. But when Everton finally got back home to his family, Simone knew something was different.
“He was emotionally detached,” she says. This trauma had changed him. Four years into the marriage, Everton and Simone would have their first pivotal moment. The long deployments and difficulty readjusting once Everton was home, was making Simone feel alone in the marriage.
“I’m not in love with you because I feel like I don’t know you anymore, but I do love you,” Simone said. “I want to go back to when we just split a piece of pizza….where it was just you and me talking about our goals and our dreams.”
That’s when Everton and Simone knew they had to take a look at their marriage and remember that it was God that had brought them together. And if He had brought them together, there was nothing that could separate them, if only they would go back to the basics.
Simone began reading a book about love and respect, which made her realize she needed to be more affectionate. “He is the affectionate one,” she admits. “As a kid, if my mom kissed me, I wiped it off.”
But just because Everton was the affectionate one, that didn’t mean that long times away from his family and trauma through war wouldn’t wear at his emotional core. Twelve years down the road, with more prolonged years of separation they would find themselves once again at a crossroad. Everton had shut down emotionally and Simone had started to become resentful.
Everton had just come back from Egypt after being on another long deployment. Simone was eight months pregnant with their third child when they began arguing. The stress of another deployment, a recent move and enduring the third pregnancy alone, had taken its toll on both of them.
Everton began yelling at the kids. That’s when Simone blurted out, “What am I just the baby maker?”
“Yes!" Everton responded.
Fuming, Simone got in the car and drove off without telling him where she was going.
She felt a moment of despair, but as she continued to drive, she had time to calm down and think. Once again, pulling on the faith her mother had taught her, she realized the answer was God.
She began listening to a podcast on self-centeredness and began to reflect on Christ’s agape love. “What is my responsibility in this?” she asked herself. “Christ wouldn’t be angry. He would have compassion. So, the problem is in me.”
And Everton realized he needed to not shut out Simone emotionally, as well as walk in humility by letting Simone run the house, since she was the one there by herself most of the time.
After 19 years of marriage, three boys and many trials, they both agree that their faith in God and walking in love and respect are the keys to keeping their marriage together. "We haven't done this perfectly, but when we focus on these foundations, the peace of God flows through our home," says Simone.
“We are a progressive family,” says Everton. “Every year we are going to get better and better.”
Smiling, Everton says, “She is my flower."
Everton and Simone may have had to overcome many obstacles to get to where they are now, but in this story, the dragon didn’t kill the knight; and in the end the knight got the princess…or in this story, he got the flower.
Sometimes, fairy tales do come true……..
- Written by Julie Nicole; Dayton, OH
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