60 years of bliss
“It’s all give and take my girl… your ‘ouma’ gives and I take,” was the humorous answer Chris Botha gave to his granddaughter, Candice Jongh, when she asked him how he maintained a long and happy marriage.
Chris (83) and Ann (80) celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary on August 15.
The Northmead couple met in 1952, when a mutual friend, who was accompanied by Chris, picked up Ann for an evening out.
Ann said it was Chris’s manner that won her over, because he has always been a kind and loving man, who treated her very well.
They were married in 1953 and, later that year, Chris took up a position in Zambia, from where they returned to South Africa in 1965.
On their return to South Africa, Chris and Ann started an earthmoving and panel-beating business together.
They have three children: Linki de Jongh-Brown, Susan Lupton-Smith and Pieter Botha, six grandchildren; Richard and Candice de Jongh, Damian Lupton-Smith, Kirsten and Sinead Ferreira and Claudette Ravell.
Their great-grandson, Damon Maloney, became the newest addition to the family in January.
Their children agree that the couple have always been an example to them and practiced good parenting skills.
“I and my siblings call my dad ‘Darling’; I think it stems from when we were little and heard Mom referring to dad as ‘Darling’, and it stuck,” said their oldest daughter, Linki.
“I recall, as a child, my parents’ undivided, absolute and total support for anything I did or endeavoured,” she added.
“I can remember Darling always used to say the woman of the home is the Queen bee,” added her sister, Susan.
Ann said that a good understanding of one another is crucial to a successful marriage.
She added that it is also about respect, along with being supportive of one another and working together.
As hobbies, Chris enjoys reading and keeping up with the news, while Ann is described by her daughters as “quite an active person”, and her current hobby is quilting.
Linki, her son Richard and his girlfriend, Kerith, treated the couple to a meal at Tasha’s Restaurant, in Bedfordview, for their anniversary, and the family will be going to the Drakensberg on August 23, for a week, to extend the celebration.
“… truly though, they are a couple I would love to live up to and have footsteps I’d love to follow,” said Candice.
