YOU don't need to tell this couple that love conquers all.

Their life is proof of that.

She has no limbs. He can't read or write.

Having been in love for six years, Madam Nur Madiah Hidayah Lim Othman, 27, and her husband, Hazali Maruf, 37, now want a child.

Mr Hazali, a cleaner at West Coast Plaza, is able-bodied but illiterate.

Madam Nur Madiah is better educated, but severely handicapped.

Instead of functional upper and lower limbs, she was born with stumps.

But instead of wallowing in self-pity, she has been happily married since 2004, and now hopes to have a family of her own.

She told The New Paper: 'Before we got married, I visited my family doctor and he told me I could have a healthy child. Since our marriage, I have not visited him because I was afraid I was not ready to have a child. My husband and I plan to visit him again now.'

Want to earn more

But there is one obstacle: They feel they want to earn more to afford raising a child.

Madam Nur Madiah has two younger siblings who are able-bodied. She said she does not know what caused her deformities.

She lives with Mr Hazali in a rented HDB flat in Clementi.

She moves around in a wheelchair and uses her upper limbs to grip and hold things.

She holds a business studies diploma from the Institute of Technical Education, and used to work as a school clerk and property agent. But when the property market slowed down recently, she stopped working.

She said: 'I am glad to have a good and loving husband. I want to go back to work as I feel that I need to supplement our income.

'My mother taught me to live as normal a life as possible and that is what I want to do.'

Although the couple eat out most of the time, Madam Nur Madiah said she can do some simple cooking.

When she was 17, she got to know Mr Hazali's cousin through an Internet chatline.

She said: 'But he arranged for me to meet Hazali instead. When I told (Hazali) I was handicapped, he thought I was joking at first, then later thought I was trying to test him.'

The couple chatted online and by phone for about two months before meeting.

Mr Hazali took a cab to pick her up from her mother's Teban Gardens flat for their first date - a movie.

She said: 'He was shocked and did not know how to handle me. I effortlessly moved my wheelchair from the void deck to the cab, and transferred myself into the cab.

'At the cinema, Hazali moved me around in my wheelchair. After the movie, he said he wanted to continue seeing me and we did.'

Madam Nur Madiah said she initially had to teach her husband how to carry her and help her around, but he was a fast learner.

She said: 'While I am hot-tempered and impatient, he is calm and cool. If I am angry, he will quickly make peace and try to calm me down. That is what attracted me to him.'

A shy Mr Hazali said in Malay: 'What can I say, my wife is cute, lah!

'She is very loving and caring.'

As he works nearly 16 hours a day, she usually lives with her mother, draughtsman Madam Halimah Sali, 54, and returns to Clementi only on his rest days.

Her father, Mr Othman Lim, died in 2003.

Madam Nur Madiah plans to attend a job fair this week. The couple finds it hard to get by on Mr Hazali's monthly income of $800.

She said: 'I am not fussy. I hope to get a job near my home or in town.'

Mr Hazali is also eager to improve himself. He studied only up to Primary Three in a Chinese-medium school.

But no matter what challenges they face, they know they will be there for each other, even to raise a child. She said: 'We know that our love will pull us through the hard times.'

This article was first published in The New Paper