MARILYN Monroe famously said, “sometimes good things fall apart, so that better things can fall together”, and that seems to be the case behind Kevin Roberts’ long-postponed engagement to Ranique Hendricks.
If getting ready to propose once is not nerve-wracking enough, Kevin postponed his proposal five times and spent six stressful days walking around with an expensive diamond ring in his pocket before he could finally get down on one knee and ask his girlfriend for her hand in marriage.
The initial plan was to propose at an engagement party camouflaged as a “welcome back” party for Ranique, 26, who works as a promoter and was on tour with comedian Stuart Taylor at the time.
Business consultant Kevin, 29, had already asked for Ranique’s parents’ blessing, and with the help of friends and family, organised the party for the Sunday night she was due back.
However, to his disappointment she phoned just hours before the party to announce her trip was delayed. Kevin moved the party to the next day, but again her trip was delayed.
He once again changed the date but was met with disappointment yet again, and by Wednesday when she eventually returned to Port Elizabeth Kevin had abandoned his initial plans for a party.
“Then I wanted to pop the question at the show during the Port Elizabeth leg of the tour but that didn’t work out either,” Kevin said.
The Perridgevale couple finally got engaged almost a week after the initial party date, with the ring burning a hole in nervous Kevin’s pocket. It was after midnight before he could finally drag Ranique away from her showbiz work commitments and only after 2am that he got the chance to propose.
“He had carried around the ring every day waiting for a chance to pop the question!” Ranique said.
“After the show and after all my work was done, he insisted we go for a walk on the beach.
“He took me to the spot where we went on our first coffee date, went down on one knee and asked me to marry him.”
The couple married a year later, and, of course, had a beach wedding.
- Eleanor Douglas-Meyers