66 Valentine’s Days together
They have been married for 66 years and are still in love with each other.
The first time I saw her walking across the street in Maraisburg so many years ago, I knew I was going to marry her.”
For Edward Watson, better known as Ted or Teddy, it was love at first sight, but for his wife of 66 years, Alma she only fell in love with the tall, dark and handsome young man after they have been dating for a few months.
On 23 April, the couple will celebrate their 66th wedding anniversary and have been living at the Wilro Park Retirement Village for the past 25 years. Ted, who celebrated his 94th birthday on 29 January, is as in love with Alma (88) as he was when he first met her. “Friends and I were invited to an engagement party and while we waited at the train station in Maraisburg, the most beautiful woman walked across the road. I told my friends that I’m going to marry that woman,” Ted said. He added that he had not even met her at that stage.
According to Alma, she was also invited to the same party. “It took me longer to fall in love with Ted, but he certainly was a handsome young man,” she said with a twinkle in her eye. They courted for about a year-and-a-half before Ted asked for her hand in marriage. “Alma was living with her aunt Stella in Delarey. We were in the house when I kissed her and asked her to marry me, and she said yes!” Ted said and looked lovingly over to his wife.
“Aunt Stella made my wedding dress,” Alma said. “My flower girl was former Springbok rugby player James Small’s mother when she was still very small.” The wedding took place at the St Michael’s and All Angels Anglican Church in Maraisburg, the building has since been demolished, before the couple settled in Maraisburg after the development of their dream house was completed.
Ted was a qualified blacksmith for the then Roodepoort/Maraisburg Municipality and Alma was a qualified hairdresser. “After my first daughter, Jean was born, I resigned to become a stay-at-home mom. I lost my mother when I was two-years-old and I wanted my children to grow up with a mother,” Alma said. Two years later her second daughter Heather was born.
The family has since grown with five grandchildren. Ted retired from the municipality and they relocated to Wilro Park Retirement Home. “It’s such a lovely, peaceful place,” the couple said.
Although they do not have plans to celebrate Valentine’s Day on 14 February, their advice to young couples are to stick together in the good and bad times and to make their marriage work. “If you have found the right partner, do things together and make sure you support each other in the good and bad times,” Ted said. He said he and Alma followed this recipe and they are still happily married.
Despite their deteriorating eyesight, they are still enjoying fairly good health. Ted joked that all he will get for Valentine’s Day is a nagging wife.
