{"id":2012,"date":"2024-02-05T09:16:48","date_gmt":"2024-02-05T09:16:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wilde-diaries.org\/?p=2012"},"modified":"2024-02-05T09:16:48","modified_gmt":"2024-02-05T09:16:48","slug":"i-do-i-do-i-do-i-do","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wildediaries.org\/index.php\/2024\/02\/05\/i-do-i-do-i-do-i-do\/","title":{"rendered":"I do, I do, I do, I do"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

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Yesterday Christopher said:” Make sure everybody in that blog knows that I have been paying for your bloody horses since 1988.” True story.\u2002That’s why he has now been dubbed Saint Christopher, patron saint of Yvette and her beings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let me go back to 1988.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our romance blossomed.\u2002We were spending all our off time together, living the best life and Christopher had introduced me to some of his friends, Chris & Sam. They were a young married couple that he had met whilst he was living in Benoni.\u2002Chris had engineered the interview that landed Christopher the position as Slots Technician for the Main Hotel in\u2002April 1987. Christopher got the interview and the job followed. I got the casual position 8 months later and so our stars collided. In the end we can thank Chris and Sammy for this matrimonial masterpiece.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chris was the Techincal Manager at the Main Hotel and Sammy worked at the cash desk, they lived off complex at Sundown Ranch which we called Rundown Ranch as it was rather the jin to Sun City’s yang.\u2002It was situated approx 10 km from Sun City on the road to Rustenburg.\u2002Although rather rundown and dilapidated the staff that lived there loved it. We visited the Robinsons a lot because they had a huge white Pyrenese Mountain dog named Zaza and a Siamese cat called Ming. I loved them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My new position at the Welcome Centre meeting all the bus passengers was a delight.\u2002I had a wonderful new boss, a colourful lady that had fierce red hair and a fantastic personality.\u2002Her hands were so beautiful, long slim fingers with picture perfect nails, even today I can close my eyes and recall those beautiful, slim, tapered hands.\u2002Fran, was a master at organising and although she had a lot of girls (Drama Lama’s as I called them) working for her she kept us all in check, motivated and the Welcome Centre bloomed.\u2002We worked 8 hour shifts around the clock and it was great because I could\u2002sync my shifts with Christopher’s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Life could not get better.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chris and Sam asked us to housesit for them in the June\/July of 1988.\u2002They were going to tour Europe during their annual leave break and wanted somebody to look after the animals.\u2002On the evening of the 3 July 1988 Christopher was working the graveyard shift (2am to 10 am) and I was alone with all the animals when I heard a knock on the door of the chalet that the Robinsons occupied.\u2002It was rather late and with great trepidation I opened the door with the security chain attached to see my brother standing on the threshold.\u2002For a second I was dumbfounded and as I opened the door I asked :” What is wrong?”\u2002He told me my dad had passed away earlier the evening.\u2002I have very little recollection of what transpired immediately after that.\u2002I know I went home and for the next two weeks I worked my way through the mixed emotions that came with the loss of a parent.\u2002There was sadness, anger, recriminations and more sadness. The last time I had lost anybody near and dear to me was my Grandpa( my moms father) and he passed when I was 9.\u2002Unaccustomed to dealing with a situation like this I just put on a brave face and soldiered on.\u2002My mom was a mess so nobody else could afford to be a mess, we had to make funeral arrangements and tell the family, between my brother and I we just carried on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The day of the funeral was bright and sunny despite it being winter.\u2002My dad died at the age of 48, basically his organs gave in due to alcohol abuse.\u2002When I think of him I think of a life wasted.\u2002He had so much potential as a young man.\u2002He was a great scholar and had a natural sportsmanship which saw him excellent at rugby and cricket.\u2002Unfortunately he was also one a of very large family and when he went to high school he was basically told to go and earn his keep.\u2002The school tried to intervene and offered bursaries for him to stay on but with so many mouths to feed his parents couldn’t see their way through.\u2002He left school and made his way to the mines.\u2002He started there at a very young age and worked himself up into a management position but in the process became a heavy drinker. He never drank a drop in the week as he had to be at work early in the morning but come Friday afternoon he would arrive home with his bottle under the arm and that would keep him company until Sunday night.\u2002I think he drank to forget what could have been. The curse of the mining industry, one of the reasons I wanted to leave so badly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My dad, Desrail Storm Bedser, was laid to rest with a full congregation of black and white gathering for the service.\u2002He was a very well liked man and his staff had travelled to the church in busses arranged by the mine.\u2002In those days it was unheard of having a mixed race congregation but on that day the Methodist church was one colour, all bleeding red from the heart, for a man that died too young. My dad was well liked by all that crossed his path when he wasn’t drinking.\u2002He was a man with a big heart and cared passionately for his staff, black & white. Christopher was at my side throughout the day, not saying much but lending support by just being there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The next few months were rather difficult but we made it work.\u2002Then Christopher decided to buy a car that was being sold by a colleague.\u2002It was a red Triumph TR7 and it had a convertible roof.\u2002Oh my word, did we have fun in that car!\u2002We would finish work at 2am, hop in the car, put the roof down and drive to Hartebeespoort Dam just to get there and turn around to come back.\u2002We listened to the Fleetwood Mac album Rumours on the cassette player and even today I can’t listen to the album without seeing the star filled heavens above me, feel the wind in my hair and the night sky hugging us in a cloak of darkness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One Saturday afternoon we decided to go to Sandton to have something to eat and watch a movie.\u2002It was early afternoon when we left and unfortunately for us we took a small detour which landed us in the heart of Brixton.\u2002We were still trying to find our way out when we were stopped by traffic officers.\u2002We had done nothing wrong but the red car and the two young people in it were easy pickings for lunch money.\u2002I quietly sat in the car whilst Christopher spoke to the guys.\u2002They wanted license \/ Id and when they saw that we were from Sun City they immediately changed tactics.\u2002They wanted money and they wanted it now.\u2002Christopher spoke to them in English\u2002and they stupidly thought nobody could understand their conversation when they conversed in Afrikaans.\u2002I overheard them making “plannetjies’ bordering on extortion.\u2002They wanted us to accompany them to the Brixton Murder and Robbery HQ, and they put an officer on a motorbike infront of us and behind us escorting us like we were going to flee.\u2002Unfortunately the office riding the motorbike infront of us had clearly never been on a bike before and this was very evident as he swerved and struggled to keep the bike upright.\u2002This\u2002and the fact that we were being treated as law breakers brought out a demon in Christopher and when we stopped at the Brixton HQ it all turned nasty quickly.\u2002Christopher demanded to see the guy’s licence and it became a screaming match.\u2002Within seconds we were surrounded by police wheeling batons and it took a lot of sweet talking to get us out of that situation. I employed all my newly acquired skills as a Public Relations Officer and managed to get us out of there.\u2002We paid a hefty fine and I wrote a long letter to the station commander the following week when I was back in the safety of Sun City but nothing came of it.\u2002Thats when I first saw the DFWM ( Don’t Fuck With Me) in Christopher. The signs have stayed the same throughout the years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Towards the end of 1988 we were alternating staying at his place or mine and this did not go down well with my very religious mom.\u2002I never confirmed the fact that I was\u2002now “living in sin” when asked but one Saturday afternoon after shift I arrived back at my flat and found my mom and Christopher’s mom waiting for me. I was appalled to see that she literally had the Holy Bible under the arm… <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let me just say it was a difficult weekend.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The ambush did not go as they thought it would and the next week we moved into a 2 bedroom flat of our own. Living in sin had just became official. Quite a little rebel I was in my young days…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One morning, a year later in September 1989 we had just come back from working the late night shift and we were standing in our flat watching the sun come up over the Pilansberg, coffee in hand when Christopher said: “I would like to buy you a ring.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I said:” You know there will always be animals?” and together we said yes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Who decides what path we will take and who will end up being our life partner? Life is just so funny with all its twists and turns, ups and downs. I had to take a very long road to meet my match but I certainly didn’t do too badly. If I thought I loved him then, I know now that I love him more. He has stayed the constant beacon throughout my life and although there has been times that I have thought about quietly putting a pillow on his sleeping, sweet countenance it has been few and far between. I often look at him and wonder if he knows how much I love him.\u2002I don’t think he would ever know.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The purchase of the engagement ring will be a story on its own in the next chapter of yesterdays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
My dad, Desrail Storm Bedser<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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The Triumph.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Chris & Sam<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Christopher and his mom & Dad, Nina & Clarry<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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My mom Maureen & I<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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In our flat with Christopher’s mom & dad<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Friends Forever, <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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My brother and Christopher’s dad.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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My mom and Christopher’s mom when they got over the shock of us living in sin…<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Yvette & Fran… still friends today <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Yesterday Christopher said:” Make sure everybody in that blog knows that I have been paying for your bloody horses since 1988.” True story.\u2002That’s why he has now been dubbed Saint Christopher, patron saint of Yvette and her beings. Let me go back to 1988. Our romance blossomed.\u2002We were spending all […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2018,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2012","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","category-yesterdays"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wildediaries.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2012","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wildediaries.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wildediaries.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wildediaries.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wildediaries.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2012"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wildediaries.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2012\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wildediaries.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wildediaries.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2012"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wildediaries.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2012"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wildediaries.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2012"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}