Sylvia's wedding was scheduled for 27 and 28 March 1982 and there was no doubt in Andrew's mind that it was going to be a ceremony to remember. African wedding ceremonies are beautiful moments to showcase the people's roots: colourful dresses, ululation, dancing, bragging and whistling as well as food and drink. It is a moment for parents to claim glory for having successfully brought up their children, and a moment for the father to prove to his extended family, friends and members of the community that he is a man among men. It is perhaps a moment in which family members, close and distant, relinquish all their differences to make the occasion memorable not only for the bride and groom, but also for themselves as part of that occasion. In essence, it is the moment for everyone to shine and bask in the glory created by the bride and groom.

Andrew accepted that his absence from family affairs was inevitable. His priority was the freedom of his people. His family, too, respected the course he had taken and chose not to be mere spectators in it, but to be willing participants in the gallery of events that constituted the struggle for the masses. Their participation in the struggle was not merely to support him, but the opportunity for them to assume a responsibility for their country.

June had promised to make the occasion special, not only for Sylvia but for her family as well, vowing to bring together distant friends and relatives. Maureen was heavily pregnant and would be unable to travel from Botswana to the wedding. None of her brothers was going to be there either as they were in exile, and with her father also in jail, the only member of the immediate family was her mother. As Andrew would later put it, June became the mother, father and siblings to Sylvia on that occasion. Her only surviving grandparent, Wilhemina, was expected to miss the event through ill health. Her proxy, Maria Moabelo, June's aunt and sister to Wilhemina, was risking missing the big day too, having to visit her ill sister; June was trying to get a passport for her. Andrew hated the fact that all these challenges lay directly on the already overloaded shoulders of his wife.