Illness no barrier to their dream wedding

[caption id="attachment_37699" align="alignright" width="250"] NEW START: Daniella van Wyk married Mo Ojay Brown at Swanlake Gardens last month. Picture: MR COOL[/caption]

A LIVINGSTONE Hospital bed proposal where the prospective groom feared his bride may never walk again had a happy ending last month with a walk down the aisle.

Beautician Daniella van Wyk said she and her boyfriend Mo Ojay Brown – who does satellite television installation – were involved in a "terrible" car accident on their way to look for a Christmas venue near Shamwari, three years ago.

Daniella fractured her spinal cord and was told by doctors that not only would she have to lie flat on her back in bed for four months, but she also had a chronic inflammatory disease.

She and Mo were not sure if she would fully recover, or be able to walk again.

"I was diagnosed with systematic lupus after the accident. I was going to be diagnosed some day but the accident just brought it on sooner," she said of the serious illness.

Mo has stood by her through it all – he had already decided Daniella was the woman for him, and bought the ring.

"I bought the ring a month before I proposed, waiting for the right time, and when the accident happened I just thought: Why wait? Life is so short anything can happen in a split second and your life can changed."

While Daniella was still in hospital, Mo said he asked his mother to ask Daniella's parents – Rev Irvan and Colleen van Wyk – for her hand in marriage.

That very same day, during visiting hours at the Livingstone Hospital, Mo asked Daniella to marry him.

"I looked at my mother and then I looked at him and said yes," she said, adding that at that moment, she knew her "life would change forever. His proposal gave me something to look forward to.

"I wanted to walk again."

Daniella said it was frustrating not being able to do anything for herself. "For four months I was confined to a bed and I couldn't walk".

However, Mo helped her by being at her side throughout her medical visits: "I love her to the moon and back that is why it's easy for me to do what I do. We live for today and appreciate each day we are together. I would not change anything about the proposal as everything happens for a reason and God's time is always the best time," Mo says.

Daniella and Mo were engaged for three years before they got married. During that time they were faced with the challenge of Daniella walking again and being treated for lupus.

"I take daily chronic medication which I really had to get used to.

"Our whole lifestyle changed after the accident. Medical bills are getting higher each month, which we never thought we would have problems with," she said.

Lupus also means it may be difficult for the couple to have children, although both remain very positive about it.

"Doctors gave me the news that it would be a 50-50 risk conceiving after being diagnosed with lupus but we trust that the Lord will bless us in his time with the perfect angel," Daniella said.

On the May 24, the two tied the knot at Swanlake Gardens, a new wedding venue on the Kragga Kamma Road with swans.

"I love swans and it was the best place to capture our special moments," Daniella said. - Sinesipho Mbandazayo