https://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/12/fashion/weddings/leana-wen-sebastian-walker-weddings.html
Leana Wen and Sebastian Walker
Dr. Leana Sheryle Wen and Sebastian Neil Walker were married Tuesday at Boston City Hall. Maureen E. Feeney, the Boston city clerk, officiated. On Nov. 26, the couple took part in a blessing ceremony at Webersburg Winery in Cape Town. The Rev. Kevin Needham, a Methodist minister, led the ceremony, which incorporated Chinese and South African wedding traditions.
The bride, 29, will be known as Dr. Wen-Walker. She is a third-year resident in emergency medicine at both Brigham & Women’s Hospital and Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. She graduated from California State University, Los Angeles, and received a medical degree from Washington University in St. Louis. She also received a master’s in economic and social history from the University of Oxford, in England, where she was a Rhodes Scholar.
She is a daughter of Xiaolu Wen of Los Angeles and the late Sandy Ying Zhang. The bride’s father retired as an information technology manager for The Chinese Daily News, a daily newspaper in Los Angeles. Her mother was an elementary school teacher for the Los Angeles Unified School District.
The bridegroom, 37, is an information technology consultant to financial companies in London. He graduated from the University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg.
He is a son of Veronica S. Walker of Johannesburg and the late Neil P. Walker. The bridegroom’s mother is a property manager in Johannesburg. His father retired as a high school mathematics teacher there.
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The couple met in London in August 2008. At the time, Dr. Wen, a native of Shanghai, was studying at Oxford. Her dissertation involved fieldwork in Cape Town, where she had never been. She went to the travel section of a London bookstore, and as she was browsing, a man carrying a stack of books on China approached her.
It was Mr. Walker, who asked her if she was from China, explaining that he was planning a trip there. “I had an immediate interest in her based purely on her looks,” he admitted.
Dr. Wen soon learned that Mr. Walker was from South Africa. “The moment that I saw this tall, dark, handsome man approach me, I knew I was interested,” Dr. Wen said.
It was, in essence, two people from the right two places at the right time.
They continued their conversation for two more hours in the bookstore coffee shop. During that conversation, Mr. Walker asked Dr. Wen out to dinner.
“When he asked me out to dinner, I thought, yes, I want to learn more about South Africa, and this man I had just met,” she said.
A week later, Dr. Wen went to South Africa, and she and Mr. Walker kept in touch via e-mail. Their relationship began in earnest when she returned to Oxford that fall, but turned long distance again in June 2009, when Dr. Wen moved to Boston to begin her residency. Mr. Walker juggled his work schedule so that he could spend a week every month in Boston, racking up thousands of travel miles.
“All that traveling was extremely exhausting,” Mr. Walker said, “but it was worth every mile.”
In September 2010, Mr. Walker had scheduled another visit to Boston. This time, however, he showed up two days before Dr. Wen expected him, bringing with him an engagement ring.
“I kind of hid in the bushes and watched as she walked home with a friend,” Mr. Walker recalled. “When her friend left, I waited for her to get to her apartment, and then I called her and asked her to come back outside.”
A bit dazed and more than a bit surprised, Dr. Wen went out and saw Mr. Walker standing there. It was just past midnight.
“I was really shocked,” she said. “I had not expected him for several days, and I did not expect a proposal either, but I said yes right away because I knew it was right.” VINCENT M. MALLOZZI
