Tika and Arthur go from strangers to soulmates

Last March, Tika De Niro, then Tika Rutherford, happened upon Arthur De Niro poolside at a country club. Though at the time she was on the tail end of a relationship, she felt a kinship with this stranger. According to her, their souls had met in another lifetime and the immediate bond she felt with him was just her getting reacquainted.

While she is unsure whether or not he was immediately attracted to her, she had heart eyes right away.

“I couldn’t tell in the beginning because it was really, you know when you meet somebody and you just feel like you’ve known them for a long time, that’s what the experience was for me. He was shy, so I didn’t know if he was giving any signs or anything,” she explained.

Though reserved, Arthur invited her to join the game he was playing with a few neighbourhood kids in the pool.

“I still remember the first words, He was, like, ‘Excuse me, miss’, it was so cute,” she said, giggling.

The two spent the day in each other’s company, laughing.

Falling in love slowly, Arthur added, “By June, I told her she was going to be my wife by the end of the year.”

He went on: “Two and a half months was enough for me to say she is the one. I fell in love for the first time in my life, actually. I had emotions back then when I was younger but not love. I see a future.”

Though initially coming to Jamaica on vacation from Israel, Arthur said meeting Tika was enough reason for him to never go home. True to his word, the two were pregnant by September and eloped by the end of the year.

With Tika nine months pregnant, the two had the wedding of their dreams through the MSW Events 14-14-14 mass wedding. Saying their ‘I dos’ among 18 other couples.

Though she definitely had a different experience due to her advanced pregnancy, Tika said the experience did not lose its fun.

“A lot of women would be worried about ‘Oh, I look fat’. To be honest, I may have those thoughts sometimes, but you know when you have the support that my husband gives me, you can’t help but feel confident regardless,” she said, beaming.

Bouncing around as one of the most energetic grooms of the evening, Arthur said that while the production team for the event had their anxieties about his wife delivering, they remained cool as cucumbers all throughout.

“We weren’t worried, but the entire production was worried that she was going to go into labour and they wouldn’t know what to do. I said ‘Calm down. It’ll be easy’,” he said.

Now with the marriage, the wedding, and a baby boy, the De Niros say they are looking forward to their next adventure and hopefully, another baby.

“He wants 10, but I don’t know if I’m capable of doing that,” Tika said.

“My end goal is to be a stay-at-home dad and homeschool my kids, and she’s going to go and make millions,” Arthur added.

shanel.lemmie@gleanerjm.com