More Love@Home

Mawuya!* A very warm welcome to you. Thank you for dropping by and taking time to read this blog.

At long last, after so many attempts, false starts and fighting nerves, we have come to write our first post of the MoreLove@Home with Jabu & Wim blog.

What has spurred us on this time is our forthcoming 30th wedding anniversary and so we decided we would start this blog by sharing some 30 things we have learnt on our 30 years-plus love journey!

We are excited and looking forward to this.

Wim and I (Jabu) thought that we would love to document these valuable lessons for our children, nieces/nephews, future grandchildren (no pressure!) and anyone else who would benefit from them.

We want to make this blog as interactive, interesting and relevant as possible.

To help us achieve this, we would like you to share with us lessons that you have learnt and are still learning from your own relationships. We will provide further instructions on this later.

On looking back, starting from our wedding day on the 2nd of December 1990, (followed by a humble, but romantic honeymoon at the magnificent Victoria Falls) to date, we have gone through a lot of highs and lows – e.g. births, loss of a child, emigrating, surviving a house fire, graduations, journey to being debt free, holidays, empty nest and recently surviving Covid-19.

As Christians, our faith has been a bedrock of our relationship.

Through it all we have been very happily married.

Before we dive into the “30 things/lessons”, it will be nice to give a bit more background of ourselves.

My name is Jabulani Lovemore Mpofu (Jabu) – most people in the UK are surprised and giggle at my middle name but it is very common where we come from!

I am married to Wimbayi (Wim), we have been blessed with two live children and lost one during childbirth.

We moved to the UK from Zimbabwe 16 years ago and so we will cover topics from both pespectives.

You will get to know more about us and our story as you read through this blog. We will start with a summary of our upbringings in our own words.

Jabu

I was born in Chinhoyi, Zimbabwe as the fourth child and only son of Mum and Dad. From this union, I have four sisters. I have an additional six half-siblings from my parents’ previous marriages.

Our family (and childhood) was shaken to the core when my mum suddenly died when I was just 8.

I vividly remember coming home from playing with friends to find her collapsed and unconscious – she died in hospitall a couple of days later.

Following that, everything changed and we had to grow up quickly. Our childhood ended.

Fast forward, finishing primary, secondary and high school, taking a gap year, I started electrical engineering studies at university in Harare.

During my third year at Uni, I met Wim.

Wim

Born in rural Zimbabwe, I am the fifth born in a family of 10 – 5 boys, 5 girls.

Earlier on in my childhood, I was sent to stay with my aged maternal grandparents in another part of Zimbabwe and did not get to meet most of my siblings until I was 12.

For my secondary education, I moved to Harare to live with my brother and his wife. After finishing secondary school, I got a clerical job, still in Harare.

It was during this time that I met Jabu.

Interestingly, we didn’t meet in Harare. Next blog is on The Meeting. Please subscribe below

Please visit About Us page to meet our family and see a flavour of the topic categories to be covered!

* Mawuya is a Shona (Zimbabwean language) greeting of happily welcoming someone