United by Queen Mary

13 February 2025

Cassiano Feitas Neto (Comparative and International Dispute Resolution, 2006) narrates the story of meeting his wife Zeina at CCLS during their studies :

"It was August 2004 when we met at Queen Mary University of London (QM) to attend the Pre-Sessional English Course designed for overseas students.  We were both Master of Law (LLM) candidates in different legal areas but with one course in common.

It was an intense month during which we studied hard to brush-up our English legal language skills.  That put aside, we also became acquainted with few amazing people from different corners of the world, some of which we are still in contact with until today – especially one very dear Serbian friend that was instrumental for the family we have today.  The pre-sessional group attended various social events organized by QM, the last one of which was a nice weekend stay at the wonderful Cumberland Lodge. 

When the LLM started in September, we ended up sitting commercial arbitration classes together, as well as staying at the same Mile End campus dorm, the now demolished Hatton House, along with some of our new friends, including of course our Serbian friend.

With the studies routine and the close daily life, we started to notice each other on a personal level.  Cooking and dinner times at the communal kitchen overseeing the Regent’s Canal covered with snow, became moments we longed for at the end of the day.  

The academic year nearly ended in July 2005, and we knew it was time for the unbearable farewell.  Cultural differences, the long distance between our mother countries and our economic standing at that time meant that a future together was only but a dream.  The truth is that it was far from easy convincing Arabic parents to accept a stranger (at the time, young) Brazilian who came out of nowhere to be their son-in-law! Absolutely out of the question, big no-no.  So Zeina stayed in the UK to study and enroll as a solicitor at the Law Society of England & Wales, while I got back to my career as a lawyer in Brazil.  From that point, we cut contact.

Fast forward six years to March 2011, I was planning an annual leave trip to the Middle East (Dubai and Oman) and shared my plans with our mutual Serbian friend, who insinuated in an “innocent” way that “our friend” Zeina was living and working as a solicitor in a law firm in Dubai and that we should meet up for a coffee while there.  The idea of meeting Zeina again after all those years was enchanting for me.  I never really stopped thinking about her and wondered about how she would feel about me.  So, I sent her a message via Blackberry (the ubiquitous business mobile tool at that time) asking to meet up, and she was up for it.  I spent a weekend in Dubai during which we visited the amazing Hatta desert pools, enjoyed a pizza at the bar of a fancy hotel by the sea and ended it with an afternoon tea at the Burj Al Arab Hotel.  It was during that afternoon that I understood – in an indirect way – that Zeina had no problem if her other half would not be Lebanese.  I could not waste an opportunity like that and asked her on the spot if I could be a candidate. She said “yes”, smiling. After returning to Brazil, the Blackberry Messenger – BBM, became our communication tool.

At the time, part of my job involved some international travelling, so I resumed an old habit that I cultured while in QM: Sending postcards.  One of these trips was in April 2011 to New York City, USA, around the same time as the royal wedding of William and Kate in the UK.  NYC was full of royal memorabilia so I got myself a postcard displaying a picture of the bride and groom on the front, and I only wrote the following on the back: “When you will accept my proposals?”.  I posted it and waited patiently without asking any questions, but no reply came.  A couple of months later, I sent her another postcard but from London this time.  Also, no mention of both cards during our chats.  At some point I decided to ask whether she had received my postcards, and her reply was that she only received the London one, with no mention of the NYC card that had the proposal on the back, so I assumed it had gone astray in the post.

Few weeks later, in September 2011, finally accepting that the NYC postcard was “lost” and thinking of ways to re-run the stunt in a fashion form, I was stricken by a surprise.  Like any regular John Smith lawyer, I woke up and checked my Blackberry for work emails and BBM messages from Zeina.  Different from our regular chitchat, I had received a message from her with the word “Yes” and nothing else. I queried about the meaning of that and received another enigmatic answer: “The question you’ve asked”.

Confused, I reviewed my prior messages searching for the question I was supposed to have sent, obviously, with no success.  That was when she played the final act: “I can’t believe you don’t remember”.  I had no clue what was going on, so I decided to make a call to avoid getting even more lost in translation.

She answered the phone laughing and teased me for a bit before revealing: “The question you sent me on the postcard, silly”; but that did not help because, for me, she had never received the NYC postcard.  Then she asked: “Think, which was the only postcard with a question in it?”.  I jumped and replied: “But you said it never arrived!!” and her touché rebuttal: “I was thinking!”

All fun settled, we started the preparations for the big day which included flying my parents from Brazil to Lebanon to an in-person family meeting with her parents to honor the tradition and formalize the engagement proposal which, thankfully, was accepted this time with no hiccups.

We got married in November 2012 in Lebanon and had a party to remember, surrounded by some of our dearest international friends.  To the disbelief of some, we are STILL married, living and working in Brazil, with two wonderful kids, a girl and a boy named after a couple of our dear friends from London times.  

Thank you, Queen Mary!"

Zeina & Cassiano