‘You don’t have to set up too much,’ she said, ‘don’t overdo it’. Three couples of chairs were positioned in front of the arcade. The seventh was stowed again. Love in times of Corona, Yes, we do!

As from midnight today, everything will go in lockdown in Australia. We closed the door Sunday night for the last time, many others will do it tonight. Yet, life continues in times of Corona, and so does love.

This beautiful couple was supposed to get married today, and experience one of the happiest days of their live to show friends and family their love for one another. Little did they know how life would look like today, nor did anyone else, when planning the wedding months ago.

Paradise

So, the wedding went on. The last wedding before Corona, the last kind of celebration where this town is famous for. From all over the world people come here to get married in this little piece of heaven on earth. No more symbolic place to start a love story than in our temporary Garden of Eden, the Paradise before Adam ate that damn apple.

[On another track, in Times of Corona, I wonder if we have fallen out of Paradise because we – as humanity – have passed a line as well. A line we knew we should not pass, yet our hubris and greed have driven us too far, but that will be for another post]

Yet, today we are for a moment back in paradise. Nothing is lost, everything is about to start for this couple. They might have imagined their honey moon a bit different, but getting locked-down here is definitely not the worst place on earth, not at all.

Simple Beauty

Back to the moment. Most of the guests bailed out last-minute. Some could not get here anymore, due to blocked borders or blocked economics; while others prefer not to move anymore, not to move the virus.

Yet, the wedding goes on. Simplified, but beautiful nevertheless. Often real beauty lays in simplicity. Like real musicians to me, are the ones that take stage with nothing more than their voice or instrument and just let the music play. No need for a big show, no need for entertaining speeches. Just pure sound; let the music and the music only speak to the hearts.

Today as well, two people showed their love, not to a tremendous number of people, but to those who mattered, to those we really care, to those who are the core of their inner circle.

Most important: they showed their love to one another.

Picture It

The photographer bailed out as well, so I got a camera in my hands and took pictures, just as in the old days, when travelling around as a research journalist. In times of Corona (and actually always), we have to be creative and royal with our talents. Give whatever you can, especially there where and when others can’t.

Then, I took a moment to take a step back, willing to take a larger picture of the wedding, putting the entire event in perspective. The blue-greenish ocean in the background, the white waves pushing the white beach a bit further with every movement. The palm trees waving in the wind – too rough to set sail has me been told earlier on today – while the mangroves stood firm and steady as always.

There were the bride and the groom, making their promises in front of the official. At one side were the two little girls in white dresses, as beautiful as their parents, while at the other side where the parents of their parents. Eight people all together, connected in their small bulb of happiness and love.

I zoomed further out, walked entirely back, more waving palm trees, pushing waves at the horizon; and amidst of all that movement: three firmly standing figures, in a dark blue uniform. Three managers of their own kind, not really guests of the wedding, but doing precisely what they did: forming a firm and strong support in the midst of all this movement.

The wedding might not have been what they thought it would have been a few months ago, but it was that what a wedding should be: showing love, and knowing there are people who have your back to help you standing strong in challenging times.

Love in Times of Corona

Life continues in times of Corona, and so does love. Or like a friend of mine told me when this all started: either there are going to be a lot of divorces, either a lot of babies after the entire quarantine.

Life continues and so does love.

Allow love to be there, to spread around as a more infectious virus than Corona. Love not only for your partner, but for all your beloved ones, and for all those you don’t even know, yet you know they have a heart as well.

Be soft, be kind, be emphatic. Life continues in times of Corona, and so does love. Yes, we do.

This article is part of the series of Hope in Times of Corona. Read on how this times of self-isolation should not mean loneliness, on how you can contribute to this battle, on how gratitude lights up the dark, on how united we will stand strong. and on the most util strategy in awake of a crisis or on how I got blown of my feet as well, but caught by many caring hands, or on how being calm can get us through the storm. Or wait until tomorrow, when I’ll shine another light on yet another positive corner of this dark times.