The winner of the PE Express Valentine’s Day competition is Ilse Tait, who shared her love story with her husband, Marc.
The lovely couple, who walk away with R1 000 in prize money, will celebrate their fourth wedding anniversary the day after Valentine’s Day.
Here is their story:
‘My Boo’ by Alicia Keys and Usher:
‘Do you remember, girl?
I was the one who gave you your first kiss
‘Cause I remember, girl
I was the one who said, ‘Put your lips like this.’
And from that first kiss, a casual fling ensued in the form of a friendship. We attempted to exclusively date throughout high school. We were young, undecided with so much more to explore, but still we could refer to the same old song,
‘It started when we were younger; you were mine (my boo).’
The story wouldn’t be complete without the sombre moments. Towards the end of 2016 we found ourselves at a crossroad. It was inevitable, it was the end, or at least so we thought. There was no singing along to, ‘Kiss and say goodbye’ by The Manhattans. It was more a case of the below lyrics by 112:
‘Baby it’s a shame we gotta go through this
We can’t even talk
Girl, we don’t even kiss
I never would’ve thought
We’d be breaking up like this
But it’s over now
It’s over now.’
We both went through the rebound phase, trying to desperately make the new relationships work, but it was simply a case of,
‘Tell me who
Who’s fooling who
Are you fooling me
Or I am fooling you’
Finally, a glimpse of a silver-lining towards April 2018; we could both relate to, ‘One Last Time’ by Ariana Grande:
‘I don’t deserve it; I know I don’t deserve it
But stay with me a minute, I’ll swear I’ll make it worth it
Can’t you forgive me? At least just temporarily
I know that this is my fault, I should have been more careful.’
Finally… 2019, everything was making perfect sense again. Having the occasional fights, the uncontrollable laughs, and when it was least expected, the engagement!
We took a moment to reflect on just how this relationship challenged us and how we endured to this very moment. We could confidently sing along to Christina Perris’s, ‘A thousand years’:
‘And all along I believed I would find you.
Time has brought your heart to me; I have loved you for a thousand years
I’ll love you for a thousand more.’
We’ve experienced both ends of the spectrum, the happiest of moments but also the lowest most disappointing … end-of-the-world-type of encounters which were designed to break us. Instead we emerged stronger, with one step closer to the next chapter as sang by Natasha Beddingfield:
‘Today is where your book begins,
The rest is still unwritten’
The above is our love story we wrote for our wedding pamphlet on February 15, 2020. This year we’ll be happily married for four years, and we are currently expecting our second child.
