William Shakespeare wrote, “Come what sorrow can, it cannot countervail the exchange of joy.”
This is true for a Eike Park couple, Ellik de Lange, DA Ward 5 councillor, and his wife Phyllis who have been married for half a century and are still very much in love.
The Herald visited the inseparable pair for a cup of coffee following their anniversary, which was on 9 April. Their home is something out of a fairy tale, but things were not always so nice for them.
Phyllis said when they got married, they were poor, but they made the best of it.
The pair was introduced by a friend who set them up on a blind date. Ellik, who was a policeman at the time, said one of his fellow officers was dating Phyllis’ friend and one night they all went to watch a movie together.
I’ll never forget it. It was a thriller of note – The Birds,” Phyllis said.
Ellik was 18 and Phyllis 15. “I was still young and pretty,” Ellik joked.
When Ellik was 21 and Phyllis 18, he asked her father permission to marry her. “I said, ‘oom, I think I want to marry your daughter’ and he said ‘yes, that’s ok’,” Ellik said. He later informed Phyllis they were to get married and chose her ring.
While the proposal seemed less than romantic, Ellik is a hopeless romantic who used to ‘borrow’ flowers from the houses he looked after as a young officer and would leave bunches of flowers on Phyllis’ family’s porch; so much so that they told him to stop, because their house was starting to look like a greenhouse.
The pair had two sons and a daughter. However, the two sons and their wives tragically died in a horror crash, while the driver got off with a R10 000 fine. A short while later, their grandson, 5, also tragically died after being hit by a car.
While it might seem like their story has turned sad, the pair is proud of their beautiful, successful grandchildren and daughter, who all have a special place on their walls and cabinets in framed photos.
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