Clouds Have A Heart Beat

Ratu Jeremaia Vuetilevuka Balemaira, 30, and his bride Mary Julia Ratukitoga, 34, believe that clouds have a heartbeat.

Sharing Jerry’s umbrella on a rainy Saturday afternoon at the National Stadium during a rugby match in 2014 was the start of

a new chapter of their lives.

Underneath the umbrella, the two strangers exchanged a brief introduction and mobile numbers. While Jerry, who hails from Sorokoba,

Ba, with maternal links to Oneata, Lau, was a police officer then.

Nayavuira beauty Mary, from Nakorotubu, Ra, with maternal links to Soa Village, Bure-i-Vanua, was a university student.

Then in late 2019, lonely Jerry searched for Mary on Facebook, sent her a message and sure enough she replied, and their love rekindled.

Jerry was posted at the Ba Police Station and their date was set for the day before Valentine’s Day that year.

Two years later before their families, friends and workmates they exchanged their vows at the Sorokoba Methodist Church.

Ratu Jeremaia Vuetilevuka Balemaira and Mary Julia Ratukitoga on Saturday, February 19, 2022. Photo: Leon Lord

One of the spectacular highlights of the wedding was the bride’s wedding gown. The masi was made from the bark of the young mulberry tree in Bureiwai, Ra.

The bark was provided by one of the sons (Ratu Isireli Kapaiwai Mara) of the late Gonesau (Ratu Josua Kapaiwai Mara).

After the bark was prepared it was sent to Sorokoba where it was beaten with mallets and formed masi sheets by the groom’s mother (Salote

Vakacagicagi Balemaira).

These sheets of masi were then carefully sent back to Suva to be designed and put together.

Mary’s friend and designer Ashnil Sharma from Maqere in Ba desgined her wedding dress.

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