South African Woman Marries Her Dead Fiance On His Birthday

Jet, March 22, 1999

Felista Nhlapo, a South African woman, planned to wed her future husband on his 51st birthday. Unfortunately, three days before the wedding, Themba Mboweni died after complaining of a severe headache. Undeterred, Nhlapo married her dead fiance at his funeral and carried on with his birthday celebration.

Nhlapo, 40, saw no reason not to carry on with the wedding, funeral and a birthday party. "I loved Themba," she said. "It was my wish to be his wife. I know it is what he would have wanted. I also know in my heart that there will never be anyone else I would want to marry. He was my soul mate and the love of my life. We've both been married before, but this time, for me, it was perfect."

Several hundred people attended the unusual ceremony in Daveyton, a suburb of Johannesburg. Mboweni's mother, Regina, said: "It was a wacky ceremony, but nonetheless one which Themba would have wanted."