Behind the emotional wedding between Linda Peddie and Jacques Liebenberg is a love story to rival any Hollywood blockbuster movie.
When the happy couple tied the knot in front of friends and family on Auckland’s waterfront, it was a celebration of love and of overcoming tragic accidents that changed the direction of both their lives.
Linda (38) left New Zealand for her oE in 1999 and was standing underneath a staircase in a nightclub in London six years ago when a daredevil patron who was sliding down a banister fell over the railing and tragically landed on the back of Linda’s neck, breaking it and leaving her paralysed.
Years earlier, in 1993, Jacques (37) was in the South African army, standing up in an open-top vehicle, when it stopped abruptly. He fell backwards, and was paralysed from the waist down from his jarred landing.
While Jacques thought he would be a bachelor for life, Linda always knew that she would one day get married.
But when she ?rst set eyes on Jacques at a charity rugby match to raise money for a disability support group, The Back-Up Trust, she had no idea that in less than two years, she would be exchanging wedding vows with him, and telling him she loved him in both English and Afrikaans – the language spoken in his home country, Namibia.
Their celebration at Auckland’s oission Bay was all the sweeter given the obstacles they’ve overcome in the past.
After her accident, Linda had to come to terms with being a tetraplegic, sacri?cing her job as a primary school teacher, and a traumatic court case which found the man who fell on her in the nightclub not guilty of acting recklessly.
“It was just one of those things, and now I’m happy,” Linda says philosophically. “I would never have met Jacques otherwise,” she says ?ashing a smile at her new husband.
And Jacques decided to start a new life alone in the UK after his freak accident, ?nding a job in information technology.
“It points your life in a different direction to what you were originally doing,” he explains.
“It takes a while to adjust to a different way of living. At some stage you have to make the decision – sit there and feel sorry for yourself or go and do things for yourself.
“Nothing is impossible,” he adds. “You just need to be a little bit more prepared. Spur of the moment things are less likely to happen – you need to plan a few things in advance.”
Planning their wedding from the other side of the world has been a highlight for Linda, who loved returning to her home town of Auckland for her big day.
She had already chosen her two-piece ivory wedding gown and a velvet bolero jacket at a wedding show in Britain, and the pair decided to both be at the wedding venue to greet their guests because it was the ?rst time that some of Linda’s friends had seen her in a wheelchair.
During the ceremony, songs by band U2 – Beautiful Day and With or Without You – were played to mark the night they ?rst got together at a U2 concert at London’s Wembley Stadium in 2009.
After they met at the charity fundraiser in England, the pair stayed in touch through social networking website Facebook, and that led to a dinner date at Linda’s, which saw Jacques eating her famous oexican guacamole – something he normally detests.
“Then I invited him to a musical and he doesn’t like musicals either. But after that we went to U2 and that was when we started going out,” Linda smiles.
Jacques proposed on their one-year anniversary but he decided to skip the traditional ring as Linda doesn’t wear a lot of jewellery. Instead, he bought her sapphire and diamond earrings.
The couple have returned to the UK where they live in an adapted apartment.
Linda quali?es for a personal assistant and they both receive other disability subsidies.
Linda would love to return to live in New Zealand, but it’s a big move and they need to ?nd out more about how things would work for them here.
“We wouldn’t want to end up living in a nursing home in New Zealand,” says Jacques.
And although the couple can have children, it’s a big decision and one they won’t be rushing into
“We’re thinking about it,” says Jacques.
“We have talked about it and we both feel comfortable enough to have children. But it will take a lot of planning.”
In the meantime they are enjoying life as a newly married couple, content that they have their perfect partner for life.
“There are things that we won’t have to explain,” Linda says. “Unless you are in the same situation, you can never fully understand it.”
Photography credit – Jel Photography
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