Evander couple celebrate diamond anniversary
The Evander couple celebrated 60 years of marriage on August 31.
Putting God first is the secret to Kobus (82) and Marthie van Zyl’s (82) 60 years of marriage.
The Van Zyl couple, who are long-time residents of Evander, celebrated their diamond wedding anniversary on August 31.
Family and friends surprised the couple with a celebration party in honour of the couple’s milestone on September 2.
The couple met at a sokkie, or so it is how Kobus recalls it when he was a disk jockey at a friend’s party in Greytown in 1961.
“I was the only guy that had a record player and could make the music. I did not know how to dance. And then I saw her (Marthie) and I kept playing the waltz. She saw me and that is the most she waltzed in one evening,” said a laughing Kobus.
But Marthie had a different version.
“Actually we met at an ATKV event. I went to the ATKV with another man, Kobus didn’t want to speak to me because he thought I was with someone else. A year later we saw each other again at an ATKV gathering. We went out to movies and that is how the relationship developed.
“Since then I had no other male friend. He is my best friend,” said Marthie.
The couple got married on August 31, 1963, and had three children, a daughter and two sons.
Kobus was a superintendent in the traffic department in Krugersdorp before locating and serving as the chief of the protection services in Evander from 1979.
“I was the first person to be appointed for this position. Those years there were no fire or ambulance services, license or traffic department, and we had to travel to Secunda or Lesley for such services.
“I took on the challenge, I knew it was going to be hard work. It was a wonderful privilege that I got to be a part of a team, together with councillors and the management committee at that time under town clerk Pappie van Onselen (the first fire brigade of Evander was also named after him) in the founding of fully run protection services,” said Kobus.
In 1980 Marthie and their children moved to Evander as the distance and weekend visits were not working out.
“Moving here I thought Evander was the ugliest town on earth, but we have been here for so long I don’t see the ugly at all,” said Marthie.
Marthie worked at the Kinross mine from 1989 to 1995 as a creditors clerk.
“We are Christians and live by such faith every day. We have good days and bad also. What we planned in the beginning is not how we have ended now. We had to make sacrifices for a better education for our children, which meant we had to sell our home,” said Kobus.
In 1984 the van Zyl’s eventually found their retirement home in Evander where they reside today. Additional flats were built on the property for Marthie and Kobus as well as for their son-in-law.
For two years the Van Zyls travelled South Africa in their caravan.
“We took our religion more seriously and adapted our way of life accordingly. Our goal was to give people a Bible in their own language. We were privileged enough to have given people a Bible written in Ndebele. To see a person be happy over the Bible being written in their language was wonderful,” said Kobus.
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Kobus said that after all the years of marriage, it is still to be decided who gets the flowers and who gets the medal.
“Marriage is a give and take. I worked very hard and many times was away from home. I felt I had abandoned my family at times,” said Kobus.
However, Marthie says that’s what he thinks.
“We are always grateful for the times we have together. I never felt alone,” said Marthie.
The Van Zyl family has extended their family with a son-in-law and two daughters-in-law, six grandchildren and one great-grandchild.
