A lab love connection

When it came time to take their wedding photos, FuiBoon Kai and Andrew Leidal knew that one location had to be on their list: the Microbiology labs in which they met.

Kai, who just graduated with her PhD in Microbiology from Dal, met her future husband while working in side-by-side labs.

“She was having trouble a technique in her lab and I made excuses to try and assist her with what she was doing,” says Leidal. “My motives weren’t just to help with the science,” he jokes.

Leidal grew up on a farm in southern Ontario. He completed his undergrad at the University of Toronto before coming to Dal to study viruses and cancers. Kai is from Malaysia and does research on prostate cancer.

When it came to the proposal — wedding proposal, that is, not a research one — Kai admits to being a little difficult. Leidal first had the impulse to propose when he spotted a massive rainbow near the Bedford Basin after a major storm. “She would say, ‘Haven’t you seen a storm before? I want to go home and do my work.’” When Leidal planned on proposing with breakfast in bed, Kai was more worried about getting crumbs on the sheets — until he pointed out there was something else on the tray. He then got down on one knee and popped the question.

The couple had two weddings: one in Malaysia and one in Canada. The Malaysian wedding was first. It consisted of many traditions and had 700 guests, including Leidal’s family and friends from the lab. There was a traditional Chinese ceremony which involved Leidal paying a dowry, which included a roasted pig. In a traditional Chinese wedding, the members of the bride’s immediate family are given their invitations by hand from the groom with a slice of the roasted pork and a slice of cake. The bride’s family get the choice cuts of the pig and the groom’s family get the “butt and the head.”

The Canadian wedding was a traditional Catholic wedding held at the St. Thomas Aquinas Church on Oxford street with a reception at the Lord Nelson. The bride’s immediate family came from Malaysia and everyone from the lab attended the wedding. All of the bridesmaids and groomsmen were members of the labs. “With the exception of immediate family, everyone there was from lab,” says Leidal. And, of course, there were photos taken in the lab as well.

The bride and groom both come from very different backgrounds, but have found common ground here at Dalhousie.

“We’re both very thankful to have come to Dal and met each other. It’s really destiny that we’ve met,” says Kai.