Actress Karen Tan met her husband, who was then a houseman, at a rehearsal for a musical by Christian group Eagle Communications. She even remembers the exact date: May 13, 1990.

She was not acting but Dr Quek Swee Chong was. She was roped in to help and, in her words, 'kaypoh around'.

She was 23 years old then and had just come out of a three-year relationship with 'someone who couldn't decide whether he wanted to be with her'.

Tan says: 'There was always an ex- girlfriend and a new girlfriend. You just think: I would like to have a boyfriend who does not give me grief.'

Meanwhile, his first impression of her was that she was a bossy girl with an unconventional dress sense.

'You were wearing your 15,000 bangles? Or was it a kaftan?' he asks.

It was actually a white T-shirt and a pair of jeans embroidered with flowers.

They hit it off and had their first date at the National University Hospital's cafeteria. They ended up dating for two years.

In 1992, he proposed to her in Egypt, where they had travelled to put on Still Building, a play by The Necessary Stage that was staged at the Cairo International Festival for Experimental Theatre.

In Luxor, in front of the River Nile, he asked if she would marry him. He did not even have a ring. Cheeky even under such romantic circumstances, she said: 'Er, I'll think about it.' But she ended the joke quickly and said yes.

They got married at Zion Bible- Presbyterian Church in Serangoon Gardens in 1993. Their wedding dinner was at The Regent hotel with 56 tables. The dinner had a full-scale concert because so many of their friends are performers.

Shortly after they got married, they moved to London, where he pursued his studies in gynaecology.

She gave up her budding theatre career and full-time public relations job at C.K. Tang to follow him. In London, she missed her busy lifestyle but learnt how to cook and run a household.

Their first daughter, Rachel, was born there. Tan suffered from post-natal depression, made worse by the fact that they had no relatives or domestic helper to support her. The family of three spent a lot of time together and she insists that 'what they have is very special'.

They came back to Singapore in 2000 to enrol Rachel in the Singapore education system.

They stayed with his brother for a while before moving into a rented house in Chip Bee Gardens. They moved to their present apartment in Robin Road in 2001.

Tan played catch up with her contemporaries in her career and steadily built a name as a dependable and versatile actress.

Dr Quek joined KK Hospital as a medical officer and is now a senior consultant.

In 2005, she became pregnant with their second daughter Olivia. Because the news came as a surprise, she still had to act in several productions that she had committed to.

The couple say they did not plan to have either child but things simply happened. He says: 'I was very happy both times.'

This article was first published in The Straits Times.