They were born and bred on opposite sides of the globe. Still, Nathalie Kuepfer and Atom Henares eventually found their way to each other, and in due time, fell in love.
By Alex Y. Vergara
She’s a Swiss national who’s also half-French, while he, although Filipino by birth, has Spanish and Chinese lineage. Although there’s probably no way he could hope to match her facility to speak five languages—English, French, German, Italian and Mandarin—both are well-educated, cultured and citizens of the world, having traveled and lived for extended periods of time overseas, either to pursue further education or chase after their respective careers.
Theirs is also a love story that veers away from the whirlwind romances we often get to witness. Rather, their romance, pre-marriage, was a slow burn, so to speak, ignited by that one initial spark after a common friend introduced the gregarious Atom Henares, a seasoned businessman and industrialist, to the attractive and chic Nathalie Kuepfer, a marketing and branding professional with a keen eye for design and the arts, 16 years ago.
Nathalie was then very much single, while Atom had already parted ways with former wife Dr. Vicki Belo, with whom he has two children. Atom and Vicki remain good friends to this day.
“I immediately found her very attractive and interesting,” Atom recalls of Nathalie. She had just started her career in marketing at the time and had recently moved from Switzerland to work in a Swiss company operating in Manila.
Constant longing
“Though we dated and enjoyed each other’s company, she soon left the country to pursue her career in various multinational companies based abroad,” adds Atom. But they kept in touch. Although they weren’t committed to each other and were free to date other people, Atom, in his words, “felt a constant longing” for Nathalie all those years, which he couldn’t fully explain.
For her part, Nathalie, founder and creative director of Portoro Interior, an online company dealing in some of the finest brands of furniture, home and accent pieces from Europe, initially found the trim, youthful-looking and smiling-faced Atom “very charming and funny.” She adds: “I [only] found out much later who he was. I guess I just fell for him because he was such a gentleman.”
During one of their long-distance phone conversations, Atom asked Nathalie, who was then based in Zurich, Switzerland, to fly over to the Philippines for a short visit. She agreed. It was only a matter of time before they both realized what they had been missing all those years.
“As soon as I saw her descending the airport escalator, all those feelings I had for her rushed back to me as if it were just yesterday,” says Atom in an interview over Zoom, unable to hide his elation. But not so fast!
Nathalie may be modern, but she had to be wooed by Atom the old-fashioned way. “An intense courtship” followed, he says, that spanned three countries: the Philippines, France and Nathalie’s native Switzerland, where her immediate family is still based.
With the wooing stage behind them, the two decided that they didn’t want to spend another day away from each other. On a bright, sunny day on a private island in El Nido, Atom asked Nathalie’s hand in marriage. And without batting an eyelash, she said yes. That also meant soon leaving her career and family behind in Switzerland, a difficult decision to do under any circumstances, and settling for good in Manila with the man of her dreams. Their two-year-long courtship culminated in marriage in what Atom describes as a “memorable ceremony” in Tagaytay four years ago.
What makes them click?
What has made the union between these two totally different people click?
For one, the two share a good number of core values like the importance they put on family and close friends. They’re also sticklers, says Atom, for “propriety,” while, at the same time, always in pursuit of new experiences and lifelong learning.
When Atom traveled abroad before, for instance, he usually stayed in American or European five-star hotel chains for the comfort and familiarity they offer. That soon changed when Nathalie became his constant traveling companion. Because of her familiarity with Europe, especially France and Italy, and her facility to speak several languages, they now usually stay at lesser-known, but character-laden hotels like converted castles, monasteries and historical buildings teeming with history, culture and artworks.
Apart from eating at Michelin-starred restaurants, Atom, thanks to Nathalie, also started dining out at more low-key, off-the-beaten-path restaurants and holes-in-the-wall serving excellent food usually not found in standard tourist guidebooks.
And while Atom hardly found time to stop by museums before, he now allots considerable time to visit some of the best museums and art galleries the world over with his wife.
Atom, a creature of habit, initially found the entire experience exhilarating. It broadened not only his idea of comfort and luxury when it comes to hotel stays, it also opened him up to new and exciting gastronomic adventures he never even knew existed before despite being a jetsetter himself. Again, he has Nathalie to thank for it.
Celebrating every moment
“I also appreciate the way she celebrates every moment—from dressing up for the office in the morning, even if there’s only the two of us working from home in separate rooms,” he shares. “I also relish the fact that Nathalie is such a positive person because of how she finds beauty in almost everything—from exquisite flowers to snow-covered mountains, as well as everyday things like the beauty and craftsmanship that went into such hand-made items as home decor, fashion [items] and works of art.”
No matter how busy they are these days, the couple make it a point every day to pause from work at appointed times of the day to savor their lunches and coffee breaks before returning to their respective home offices.
And whereas Atom usually went to the office on weekdays, pre-pandemic, toiling from midmorning to early evening, he and Nathalie now make it a point to finish their respective work-from-home commitments by 5 p.m. to do their sports like biking, walking or swimming, before dinner.
“We finished building and furnishing the house we’re now living in a few months before the pandemic hit,” he discloses. Although this modern-day plague has brought untold misery and suffering to countless people, a fact Atom and Nathalie feel very sorry for, the couple have also managed to find a number of silver linings through it all.
“Had the pandemic not happened, I’d probably still be working long hours on the road or in the office,” he says. “Imagine spending a good part of our waking hours going our separate ways and leaving behind a brand-new home we’ve worked so hard for, especially Nathalie, to design, build and furnish.”
Artistic meets methodical
For her part, Nathalie describes Atom as “a real bachelor” when she first met him. “So, I had to wait until he matured. Ten years later, he conquered me yet again with his charm and gentlemanly ways.”
Nathalie is artistic, as Atom is methodical. As she now tells us, he took care of every detail whenever they would meet here in the Philippines or wherever in Europe. And that he was (and still is) extremely funny, made her realize that she, too, didn’t want to be apart from her Filipino sweetheart anymore.
“I’m amazed at his energy and, despite his busy schedule, he’s always up for new adventures,” adds Nathalie. Being a child of the tropics, Atom didn’t care much for skiing even if some of his previous trips took him to some of the world’s best skiing sites in Europe, Japan and the United States. But because his wife is so into it, he readily took up the sport and found out that he relishes the adrenaline rush it gave.
They were in fact on their way home to the Philippines after a skiing trip in Niseko, Japan when the entire world suddenly woke up the next day, so to speak, in the middle of a raging pandemic. “It felt quite eerie arriving at a near-empty airport in Sapporo and hearing ding after ding through the PA system of flights getting cancelled,” he says. “We were lucky to have caught a flight that took us back to Manila.” A day or two after setting foot in the Philippines, the Henares couple, like the rest of us, witnessed the entire world going into lockdown.
“The world was so much smaller then, pre-pandemic,” says a wistful Nathalie. “These days, traveling is not as easy or as safe as it was before.”
Travel, for Nathalie, is also a necessity since, aside from sourcing for exquisite products abroad to beef up her online store, she feels the need to fly to Europe to constantly be in touch with her family, especially her parents. “Of course, there’s FaceTime and all sorts of ways to make video calls these days, but we all know they’re not the same,” she says.
So, going back to her fateful decision to finally leave everything behind, including her loved ones and comfort zone, to begin life anew half a world away with Atom, what power on earth prompted her? Nathalie takes a long pause before breaking into a smile. Although she doesn’t utter a single word, the sparkle in her eyes says it all: “That’s amore!”
