By Joey Aguilar/Staff Reporter


All it takes is a special person in your life for you to adapt to whatever changes that may come along.
For a lady like Josephine, who knows no boundaries in love, marrying a man of a different religion and culture 27 years ago was a choice she will never regret.
“We met in college in class. Then I saw him at the student centre and began talking to him about his country and I asked him a lot of questions about his culture,” Josephine told Gulf Times.
Both were then studying in Texas, taking foundation courses. It was during those times when Josephine felt the sincerity and honesty of Muslims, especially with her boyfriend, who showed utmost care and love to her, her friends and family.
After a couple of years, she converted to Islam and the two got married and settled in Doha in 1990. She described her husband as respectful, religious and kind – traits she was attracted to.
Unlike other parents, who usually have objections to their children marrying someone from a different society, Josephine’s mother and father liked her Qatari husband without any hesitation.
“They were not afraid of me marrying him. I also changed my religion at the same time, so the only question they had was ‘Does Islam believe in God and does Islam believe He has no partners?’” she said. “Of course, both answers were “yes”.
Josephine added that she was lucky to have a husband who treated her parents like his own parents, willing to extend a helping hand at every given opportunity.
On the other hand, her mother-in-law was a bit upset at first since the latter had already picked out a wife for her son.
“But towards the end of her life, she said she loved me more than she loved her own flesh and blood, and thanked Allah over and over for sending me to her son and to her,” recounted Josephine. “I took care of her in her old age, so there was mutual respect and kindness.”
Josephine admits she had a hard time adjusting to the cultural and religious changes during her first two years in Qatar. First was the food and then the dress, something that she personally had difficulty coping with.
“To tell you the truth, at first it was very hard. The first two years here, I cried a lot. I missed my home, culture and food,” she stressed.
“I ate peanut butter and jelly sandwiches every day for the first year I was here. I didn’t like the spices in the food  and wasn’t crazy about the fried fish having ‘eyes’,” she quipped. “But slowly I got used to it and now I wouldn’t trade it for anything.”
Asked why, Josephine said there is no other reason except their love for each other: some differences can be fixed easily by making small adjustments.
However, some considerations and realities cannot be ignored, too, according to her. She noted that Qatar was one of the best and safest places on earth to raise children. The couple had been blessed with four girls and a boy, their ages ranging from 14 to 26.
Compared with the
environment in the West, she thanked God for
her children grew without getting addicted to drugs, safe from criminals and immoral acts such as pornography, and disrespect, among others.
She believes the Arab community has a huge level of respect for elders, “which I am sad to say is not the same in the US.” She was all praise for the teachings of Islam.  
Despite living a good life in Qatar, Josephine admits she missed a lot of things back home. First, she missed her family and friends who had been very supportive of her endeavours.
She also missed the seasons: the rain and the snow where they used to play before. And of course, the food that had satisfied her taste buds.