Lifestyle
How a lady forced to sit apart from friends on flight fell in love with a stranger
Woman, 37, who was forced to sit apart from her friends on a nine-hour flight reveals she ended up falling in LOVE with the man in front of her – and the pair are now happily MARRIED
A woman who was forced to sit alone on a nine-hour flight after being separated from her friends has revealed how she ended up falling in love with the man sitting in front of her – and now, the married couple spends their days traveling the globe together.
Martina, now 37, and Leslie Johnson, now 41, met by chance when they were both flying to Kenya back in 2014.
Martina, from New Jersey , was traveling with five of her pals, but when she found out that she wouldn’t be sitting with them, she was left scrambling.
Desperate to not be alone for the immense journey, she begged those around them to switch seats – but no one obliged.
A disappointed Martina ended up sitting in the row behind New York City-native Leslie – unknowing that he would one day become her husband.
The two ended up hitting it off and talking ‘the entire flight’ – and by the time they landed in Nairobi, Martina said she knew they ‘were going to be together’ one day.
‘We talked the entire flight. We had a really good conversation,’ she told CNN Travel recently.
‘In the back of my head, I’m thinking, “If he’s single, we’re going to date.” But I didn’t know if he was single.’
What makes their meeting even more magical is that Martina almost didn’t go on the trip because she thought it was a ‘scam’ when she first discovered how cheap the flight was – only $279 for a round-trip flight to Africa.
After chatting all the way there, Martina asked for Leslie’s number before the two went their separate ways.
They thought that might be the end of it, but when they coincidentally ran into each other at a restaurant in Kenya a few days later, it seemed like fate.
The couple explained that they both noticed each other almost immediately, but didn’t realize that the other person had seen them.
‘I went to the restroom, but I didn’t think [I] caught [her] attention. So I ended up going back like two or three more times,’ Leslie explained. ‘But I still didn’t make any kind of eye contact with her.’
Martina recalled, ‘I was excited to see him. But I was also playing it very cool.’
The two finally spoke when they were both done eating, but Martina admitted the interaction felt ‘a little awkward.’ Even so, she left with the same feeling she had on the airplane: That they would somehow end up together.
‘It’s weird, because it was just a matter-of-fact feeling. It wasn’t necessarily like, “Oh, I just met this guy – I’m so excited.” It was just a very calm, matter-of-fact,’ she gushed.
‘Like, we just had a great conversation and he seemed like a great person. [I thought], “If he’s single, that’s it. We’re going to date.”‘
‘Everything just kind of seemed like it was meant to be, or just was happening for a reason,’ Leslie agreed.
After they both got back to the States, Martina decided to send Leslie a text message, which read, ‘How’s jet lag treating you?’
They then started talking about what they had been up to on their respective trips and after a few days of chatting nonstop, Leslie asked to take her out to dinner.
They went to a South African restaurant in midtown, and after that, they were inseparable.
‘We were constantly in touch,’ Leslie revealed, with Martina adding, ‘It was very easy. There were no gray areas. We liked each other, and we hung out, we spent time together.’
Three months later, they made their romance official, and around year after that, Leslie got down on one knee and asked Martina to marry him during a romantic trip to London.
They tied the knot in Columbus, Ohio, in October 2018, and the theme of the wedding was ‘Love at first sight.’
Now, nearly a decade after they met by chance on an airplane, the couple have used their mutual love of travel to become viral online stars.
They have racked up nearly 100,000 followers on their joint Instagram account, called The Couple Who Travels, where they document their endeavors and share travel tips.
They’ve visited Antigua and Barbuda, The Maldives, Turkey, and Guatemala all within the last year.
Looking back on how their romance began, Leslie still can’t believe how lucky he got, telling CNN, ‘I met someone who lived not too far away from me, but I met them on a plane – thousands or whatever miles away from home.’
As for Martina, she hopes that their story will encourage others to get out and travel more.
‘Do what you love, and it will lead you to everything else,’ she concluded. ‘I love to travel. I traveled and I met the love of my life.
‘So find that thing that you love and you don’t know what breadcrumbs that will lead you to.
‘It might lead you to the love of your life. It might lead you to your purpose – you just don’t know, but we all have unique desires and things that we are passionate about.
‘Don’t ignore it. Don’t wait for someone else to go with you. Just do what you love and see what happens.’
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Here are American celebs among over 500 people from the Black diaspora granted Ghanaian citizenship
Since the launch of Ghana’s “Year of Return” program in 2019, hundreds of African Americans have visited the country to experience the history, culture and tradition upfront.
The Year of Return is an initiative by the government of Ghana to mark 400 years since the first black slaves landed in Jamestown, Virginia .
The initiative saw an array of celebrities across the globe make their way into Ghana to explore, learn and appreciate their roots, as well as, unite with Africans on the continent. Steve Harvey, Nicole Ari Parker, Diggy Simmons, and Micheal Jai White, and Bozoma Saint John were among a host of celebrities who spent some time in Ghana following the launch of the initiative in 2019.
As part of the yearlong “Year of Return” celebrations, then-president of Ghana, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, granted citizenship to 126 diasporans who had been residing in the West African nation for years.
Last two months, before leaving office, Ghana’s President Akufo-Addo granted citizenship to 524 diaspora members, mostly Black Americans. Reality stars Yandy and Mendeecees Harris and activist Dr. Umar Johnson were also granted Ghanaian citizenship recently.
The November group was the largest one granted citizenship at one time since Ghana launched the “Year of the Return” program, the Associated Press reported. Ghana extended the program into “Beyond the Return” to continue its engagement with the diaspora community.
During the historic swearing-in ceremony, Akufo-Addo urged the new citizens “to bring their experiences and expertise to help develop Ghana, making it a better place for all.”
In the year 2000, Ghana became the first African country to officially open its doors to people of African descent from all over the world.
The West African country passed the “Right of Abode” law which allows any person of African descent to apply and be granted the right to stay in Ghana indefinitely.
This was followed by the launch of the Diaspora Affairs Bureau under the foreign affairs ministry in 2014 to manage the migration and engage the diaspora to provide a sustainable link with various government agencies to achieve development and investment goals.
According to government figures, at least 1,500 African Americans have moved to Ghana since 2019. That year, the West African country’s economy generated a total of $1.9 billion through activities related to the “Year of Return.”
Some of the activities that contributed to this figure included air travel, hotel accommodation, transport fares, as well as other key entertainment events.
Keachia Bowers, who is among the 524 African diasporans granted Ghanaian citizenship, relocated to Ghana from Florida in 2023 with her family. She told AP that getting citizenship is more than just living in Ghana.
“I didn’t need (citizenship) to tell me that I’m African. Anywhere that I go in the world and someone looks at me, I’m melanated,” she said.
“But my ancestors who wanted to return and come back home, those ancestors who never made it back,” she said, “that passport, for me, is for them.”
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Lifestyle
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The trial of Jeanne Kay Whitefeather, 62, and Donald Ray Lantz, 61, continued Wednesday in Kanawha County Circuit Court.
They were arrested in October 2023 after two of their five adopted children were found locked in a shed outside their Sissonville home, near Charleston. The parents, who are white, face more than a dozen counts including forced labor, civil rights violations, human trafficking and gross child neglect. The children, all siblings ranging in age from 5 to 16, are Black.
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