It was a sweet 70th anniversary for Benjamin and Dora Freeman who celebrated their wedding milestone at their Scottsville home on Sunday.
Benjamin, 92, and Dora, 93, had a special three-tier cake made with nostalgic black-and-white photos of them printed on it.
The golden oldies marked the occasion with their nine surviving children and took a long walk down memory lane, recalling the day they wed on 25 November 1950.
They went on to have 10 children, 19 grandchildren and 14 great-grandchildren.
Dora worked two jobs to make sure her kids stayed in school, while her husband became a pastor.
The preacher offered young couples advice to keep their relationships solid, quoting from Ecclesiastes in the Bible to “remember thy creator in the days of your youth”.
He admonished youngsters to remain humble and listen to their parents.
“My special prayer was that God gives me a mainstay, and that is Dora, my wife,” he says.
“Today, after 70 years, I am proud that we are still together. It’s like the gospel song says, it wasn’t easy, but it was worth it.”
Dora says: “We got married during apartheid. I am a proud mother because all our children went to high school.”
Their oldest grandchild, Bernadine Claassen, is 45 and the couple’s oldest daughter, Lorna Freeman, turns 70 next March.
“One of the wonders in our life was when a pastor blessed us with a brand new Mercedes in 2005,” she says, adding when God blesses you, he does it in abundance.
Their oldest son, Patrick Freeman, 68, says this is a wonderful achievement.
Patrick says: “We want to live the Freeman branding, to be a pillar to others as our parents told us over the years.”