Once upon a time, in a land far far away, there lived two awkwardly badass chicks. They didn’t know each other, even though, their worlds ran parallel. One day, randomly, the boyfriends of both these women, being old friends from “the scene” bumped into each other in a mall. Being equally awkward, both women stood aloofly to the side and smiled and said good to meet you and then ignored each other. Because they didn’t like people very much. And so they looked bored for a while as their boyfriends chatted away until eventually, they were released from this awkward pleasantry of a moment. They parted ways and went on with their lives.

Several years later, now both mothers in the blogging world, their paths were to cross again. Because that’s how fairy tales always begin. And so it did.

Second impressions

The two women attended a blogging event. They at this point had become familiar with each other because the blogging world is small and everyone attends the same events. So they saw each other and they made more small talk and it became less awkward.

Randomly, the one blogger sent a birthday invite to the other and she was SHOCKED. Why on earth would this super cool famous blogger (Maz from Caffeine and Fairydust) invite her (Me) to her (Maz) birthday party. The party was a whole day of wine estate hopping by wine train so um yes! Of course, I was going to attend. And so I did.

The beginning

I arrived with my now husband and we chatted to everyone and it was kinda awkward cause my kinda ex was there, of course he was her friend, but the most awkward thing was, Maz kept calling me Yonelle. Because she’s Afrikaans and the J is pronounced like a Y and since she’d never heard my name out loud before I guess, she didn’t know it was pronounced Jonelle (like a normal name) but it was her party and we didn’t know each other very well and so the moment passed and she continued to call me Yonelle for an entire day. An ENTIRE day until eventually I burst out “it’s JONELLE” and she said “oh, well, why the fuck didn’t you tell me??” and so our friendship began.

That day ended up being a ridiculously fun day and of course it was. We are lovers of wine. It turns out, we are so much more the same than just our love of wine. This invitation to her party was the beginning of the rest of our lives and I will always be so thankful that this bad ass alternative amazing person included me in her life.

We spent the next year of our lives doing all the things together. We drank more wine. We ate more food. We watched our children play together. We watched our children make the biggest fucking mess on earth. We braai’d (barbecued) we laughed, we attended more events, we messaged, we talked about love and life and clothing. We discovered that we had a shared childhood, but across the south of Africa from each other. Her life in Uppington, on a farm, mine is rural Swaziland, farm life… hunting, crazy fathers, adventure. We were more similar than we were different. Awkwardly the same.

Our boys, Oden and Knox

I met this person and formed this friendship and then I moved across the world. I have said a million goodbyes in my life but at the airport, on that day, I cried for a future we would not share. I cried for all the nights we would not sit laughing together around a fire. For the life we would live, together but separated. My heart broke.

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Maz is the friend I never knew I needed until she was inseparable from my world. I have never met someone who stands so tall (literally, she is super tall- lol) in her convictions. She is covered in tattoos, she swears like a sailor, she drinks wine, she loves with all her heart, she parents in a way that inspires, and she defends her world with all she has. She stands up for what she believes in, she defends with all her might. She supports with all her heart. She is a warrior who is so human in her compassion. I am still thankful every day that she chose me. She is magic and my life is infinitely better with her in it.

Today is her birthday – a world apart from me – because now she too has moved across the world and I can’t be there. To celebrate her life, or the milestone that is our friendship, so I wanted to document this moment by saying I love you to the end of earth Maz. Thank you for bringing your crazy and joining my crazy and turning this world into our crazy. I know with certainty that we will be walking side by side until the day we die. I love you, happy birthday!