Dr Liza’s Vet Tales Excerpt – Nuptials

A few months before I qualified as a vet, Ash, my boyfriend shared that he was determined to leave South Africa as he was tired of the negative aspects of the gorgeous country that we lived in. I thought that going overseas after I finished university would be a wonderful opportunity and that I would humour him, firmly believing that after a couple of years we would miss our home and return to the land of our birth where we both loved to scuba dive and enjoy the wealth and diversity of what South Africa had to offer.

We deliberated on where we would go and after an amazing trip to the Red Sea living aboard a boat for eight days and diving four times a day we thought that living in the UK would be a good move. Over time we realised that we would both prefer a place with a bit more space and at that time the company that Ash was working for in Johannesburg was bought by a company in New Zealand who needed someone to do exactly what Ash did. This in addition to New Zealand being short of vets at the time made it our logical destination.

As part of making the transition overseas easy, we went about the task of obtaining our marriage certificate. Both of us, being simple souls, not being fans of ceremony and knowing that being together was all the commitment that either of us needed, we felt no compulsion to go through the throes of greatly celebrated nuptials. But Ash had a question “If we throw a party will we get some great gifties?” and since  an affirmative was a high likelihood, especially given that my rather well-off aunty would be visiting from overseas at the time, we decided to have a “gathering” of our friends and family.

This aunty was loved by our family but she was known for being quite careful with her money, having sold my Dad my first car at market prices and my finding that there was no petrol in the car when I drove it off for the first time! I remembered visiting my dear aunty overseas years before and she presented my brothers and I with gifts. My brothers each received a pen and I was given a teaspoon!

Just before Ash and I were scheduled to collect our marriage certificate, Gav, my brother had just returned from his overseas travels and given me back some money that I had loaned to him. This was just what I needed to go and buy a really nice pair of hiking boots that I had wanted for a while. Since my poor depraved mother has longed for a daughter who she could take shopping and indulge in buying all sorts of fashionable things and I did very little to accommodate her needs in my youth, I asked her if she’d like to come shopping with me.

She immediately replied with the same longing in her voice as someone who had been starving for days answers as to whether they’d like something to eat:  “My darling, are you going to buy something to wear at your wedding?“. To which I said, “No, I’m going to buy a pair of hiking boots but I’ll wear them if you like” and my boots have been referred to as my wedding outfit ever since!

Ash and I made a quick trip to the court in Pretoria (of course some family and friends insisted on tagging along, our friend Mike reckons that it’s for the same reason people stop and watch the happenings of a car accident) and an old man with a few teeth missing and a packet of cigarettes in his front pocket said in his rich accent “Do you Lyza (not a spelling error) take Ashley to be your husband?” and it was done.

Of course we had our gathering and were grateful to be spoiled with some wonderful gifts, the last of which we opened slowly since Ash had been savouring this one. It was from my aunty and it turned out to be “the ugliest looking dish spoon that I have ever seen” to quote someone hoping for a bit more!