By Lara Downes
Fairy tales do come true, but sometimes not quite the way you've imagined. Last spring, Elaine Welteroth and Jonathan Singletary had to give up their plans for a dream wedding. The writer/Project Runway judge/fashion icon and the musician/producer had been planning epic nuptials to celebrate their epic love story (they knew each other as children, then reconnected after many years to discover soul mate-level romance.) But when the pandemic started, their happily-ever-after took a different turn. The wedding turned into a DIY front stoop affair at their Brooklyn brownstone, with most guests Zooming in while a lucky few danced in the street to a boombox playing the couple's favorite songs. It was enchanted beyond anyone's wildest dreams.
The first chapter of this marriage has been beset by menacing outside forces: the global pandemic, racial violence in American streets and insurrection at our nation's Capitol. But Elaine and Jonathan have called on the good spirits of kindness, generosity, devotion, gratitude and courage — and they have prevailed.
During this year of pandemic and isolation, of grief and fear, and of newlywed bliss, Jonathan wrote a love song. "Never Like This" is for Elaine, and for their community of friends and family that have gathered together in the shelter of love. In his words, "It's an ode to the greatest drug known to mankind — love. It's an homage to classic love, to courageous love, to transcendent love."
This is a conversation about the triumph of love over everything, of good over evil, of joy over despair — about the power of love to guide us, with intention and purpose, to shape our own stories and find our own happy endings.