HOW WE MET
MARRYING – AFTER A LIFETIME LIVED AND LOVED GILTA AND JEFF, Kangy Gardens WORDS SARAH TOLMIE
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fter 27 years of living and loving together and leading their blended families through all that life threw at them, Gilta and Jeff finally got around to getting hitched. They made up for lost time by having not one, but two weddings in two years. ‘At first glance, our “how did we meet” story is pretty ordinary. We met through friends. It’s so long ago, I forget the details,’ says Gilta. ‘I think what is more central to our relationship story though is how Jeff and I meet each other every day. In many ways, for the first 27 years of our life together, Jeff has consistently met me as himself, and has loved me for myself – warts and all – every day. But for so long it’s been all about the kids, business and working. Our whole relationship has been a rollercoaster of events, occasions, people and activities. We were just too busy to get married.’
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Jeff surprised Gilta with a proposal on New Year’s Eve at their waterfront property with all the family in on the surprise. When she said ‘yes’, they raised signs saying ‘she said yes’ and celebrated the engagement. ‘By the time Jeff asked me to marry him, it just seemed right,’ says Gilta. ‘I now can see that I am – we are – in a great place of contentment, and I can survey the years in all their strengths. We have lived and loved with integrity, hard work, respect, trust and compromise. I know we’ve done things in reverse, but to me, it is only now that it makes sense to celebrate and honour that. ‘I think love and respect are inseparable, so I have a lot of respect for Jeff, which means I have a lot of love for him,’ says Gilta. ‘He is patient, adventurous, generous, inventive, accepting and sometimes, to my dismay, easy-going. He can be hard but fair, honest and fun.’
