I say ‘privileged’ for a few reasons. Firstly, some of the more obvious stuff. I am severely pregnant at this stage, so I am very glad to have been able to fly to Cape Town in order to attend. Good timing.
The wedding was held on the edge of a lake in the mountains around Elgin and Grabouw in the Cape. Where we were at the water’s edge it was quite alpine, but to get there you had to drive across some of the most breathtaking scenery in the country, cutting through vineyards and apple orchards, the branches laden heavy with fruit. So we had a lakeside resort with its log cabins all to ourselves, the peace only shattered by occasional laughter.
But, allow me a few words about the deeper reasons for feeling privileged to have been a witness to this event. In a world where people come into your life for “a reason, a season or a lifetime,” Ilse fell firmly into the ‘lifetime’ category within minutes of me meeting her. I have shared her joys and sorrows, and she has shared mine, for more than half our lives. Watching her arrive as a veiled bride on a barge across the lake, I was filled with a love and joy that was almost too much to bear.
And then, listening to Japie tell his bride that he “knows in his heart that she is the woman God intended for him to be with, and that he’s only sorry that she had to wait so long,” I knew that patience had been rewarded.
Love, peace, joy, patience. In our log cabin wedding venue by the side of the lake, they filled the air and our hearts.
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