“Our love story is quite simple if you ask me, although it didn’t really start with love at first sight…”
Naledi is a local artist, who fell in love with music while in high school and Isabel is in her final year of Medicine (MBChB) at the University of the Free State.
Naledi says they met through mutual friends, but they didn’t like each other at all in the beginning. “She was always studying and there was one time we all went out for McFlurries and she brought her books along to study. This was crazy to me and I let her know. Needless to say we got off on the wrong foot. Although we didn’t get along, she disliked me a lot more than I disliked her,” he says.
“One day we were in the same space and I told her I was going to marry her. That made her dislike me even more. We then realised that we were in the same church and that we should probably be civil with each other and that’s when things changed for the better. I needed Jesus to intervene.”
He says it was in church that he noticed the real Isabel and that’s where he fell in love with her heart for people. “She is extremely selfless to people who can never ever repay her. This is what ultimately made me realise that this could be the woman I build the rest of my life with.”
The couple will be married for five years in November this year. Their wedding day was quite different from a normal wedding day. Because of the amount of weddings Naledi sang at, they wanted theirs to represent them – “I wanted it to be just like my wife: short and sweet,” says Naledi.
“We had our wedding ceremony on a Friday afternoon in the beautiful Rosella Gardens in Bloem, followed by a picnic with live entertainment and by 18:00 that evening we were already on our flight to Johannesburg for our honeymoon. We spent an amazing three weeks in Bali for our honeymoon and that was the highlight of our wedding,” says Isabel.
Speaking about their careers, Naledi says his love for music actually started at Grey College where he joined the primary school choir and from there started taking music lessons. “I then joined the Bloemfontein Children’s Choir which gave me the opportunity to travel the world with music… that’s when I realised this could be a career,” he says.
He adds that he then joined a small singing group at Grey, which led him to join Vishuis Ser once he started varsity. “A few of us started messing around and singing together on campus and that’s when Simple Stories was birthed, and then from that came my solo journey which I’m currently on. It’s been nothing but music since.”
Isabel says the field of Medicine has always been her calling. “I remember at some point when the road to Medicine became a bit tricky and it felt like a distant dream I was so frustrated because I had no idea what I was going to do with my life… because if not Medicine then what? Now I’m finally starting to understand a little bit more about why I’m so in love with Medicine. The gift of being able to serve someone in their most vulnerable moment is something I find so precious, and to be able to not only be a part of it but play a big role in it is something I truly feel honoured to be a part of.”
When asked how they balance their different schedules and keep the spark alive they said: “Because our professions and careers differ so much, it’s very important for us to be intentional about the time we spend together because we get so little. This has actually become a blessing in disguise because now that we know our time is limited when we are together, we really make it count. Date nights are a must! Even if it’s a quick lunch date during a busy day. And special days are to be highly celebrated. That’s ultimately what keeps the spark alive… time and romance.”
The couple says their ideal romantic vacation would be disappearing – with their phones switched off – to a place that has great weather and even better food. “We are the biggest foodies… it’s our love language.”
Define love: “Love is a doing word. Marriage is spelled W-O-R-K. Yes, feelings are present and are important, but the crux of love is work because loving someone requires sacrifice, forgiveness, intent, and passion, over and over again, whether you feel like it or not. Sometimes we don’t like each other, but at that moment love is still present. We are continuously learning what love is, at the end of the day it’s a continuous pursuit.”
Text: JUSTINE FORTUIN Photography: GYPSEENIA LION
