Martha and Thomas Schamrel celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary with family and friends at Lincoln’s Steakhouse on Friday, 2 May.
Thomas was born in Port Elizabeth, but transferred to Bloemfontein for work, where he met Martha in a café. “Dad was boarding with mom’s friends’ parents. Dad wanted to brag to mom, so he held a bowl with sugar in front of a fan and all the sugar blew towards my mom. Dad made as if he was very sorry and started to clean up and apologised to mom. That is how it all started,” said their daughter-in-law, Anne.
They married in 1964 in the Twee Toring Church and settled in Bloemfontein.
In January 1965, their son Joe was born.
Two years later they relocated to Toti until they found the perfect place to build a home in St Winifreds in 1973.
Three daughters – Irene, Belinda and Martienet – added to their family.
Thomas was a vehicle body builder for the SA Railways in Durban. For a few years he worked for Transnet, until he retired at 55 years. Then he did handyman work to keep busy.
Martha also worked at the railways as a station clerk. After they moved to Toti, she looked after her family, while working at Worthinghams in Toti and various second-hand shops.
“Have respect for each other, lots of love and diligence to make a lasting marriage,” said Martha. “Have compassion for each other and ‘vasbyt’, today’s life is not easy,” advised Thomas.
The Schamrels are blessed with for grandchildren – Andre, Byron, Brigitte and Matthew.
