It was love at first sight when a Fish Hoek couple, Hennie, 90, and Elsie Nieuwoudt, 91, (née Venter) met at a party in Blyvooruitzicht, a mining village near Carltonville, in December 1953.
They were married in the Carltonville Magistrate’s Court the following year, on August 21, and celebrate their platinum wedding anniversary – 70 years – next week Wednesday.
Hennie worked on the Blyvooruitzicht gold mine and Elsie was an invoice typist in Johannesburg.
They met at a “teenage” party, and Elsie describes the moment they locked eyes as “love at first sight”.
Hennie was sitting in the lounge wearing a beige corduroy jacket and pants, and Elsie thought to herself: “What a hunk. I’d love to have him.”
At the time, she was engaged, but she and Hennie exchanged contact details and became friends.
Hennie says a room “lit up” when Elsie walked into it, and he was surprised that she wasn’t married as she was “a beautiful woman”.
Elsie travelled between Blyvooruitzicht and Johannesburg every week and spent weekends at home before travelling back to the city for work.
She recalls how Hennie, who had a car, drove her and her fiancé to Johannesburg one day, and every time she looked at him in the rear-view mirror he would wink at her.
At the time, she says, there were rumours that her fiancé had been flirting with other women on the mine and her mother had told Hennie, “If you want Elsie, you better jump quickly.”
Elsie turned 21 in April 1954, and being one of 12 children, her parents could not afford to give her a 21st birthday party so Hennie stepped in and paid for her party.
“One day, he phoned me at work to arrange a coffee date. I told him I wasn’t going to have a party. My dad was a mechanic and didn’t earn much,” she says.
Hennie told her that 21 was an important age, and he wanted her to have a party.
Shortly afterwards, she broke off her engagement, and Hennie took the ring back to her fiancé.
And in June, she and Hennie got engaged.
Following their engagement, Elsie took a three-week trip with her aunt and uncle to Belingwe in Zimbabwe.
When she returned, Hennie, her mother, and her father were waiting for her at the train station.
“He kissed me and said: ‘We are getting married tomorrow.’”
This took her by surprise because she didn’t have a dress, but her mother said it had all been taken care of.
After their wedding, she says, “all eyes were on her” because they had gotten married so suddenly, but their first child was born in December 1955, more than a year after their wedding.
Hennie says the secret to their enduring romance is unconditional love and respect while Elsie says, “I still get butterflies when I see him.” God has blessed them abundantly, she adds.
Their different personalities created a perfect balance, she says, as she is an extrovert, and Hennie is an introvert.
“I listen a lot,” Hennie says, laughing.
Hennie retired from the mine, and the couple moved to Fochville.
In 2003, the couple’s son-in-law offered Hennie a job in Cape Town, and they moved to Fish Hoek.
They still live in the same block of flats they moved into then.
“We have been so blessed to live here for so many years, and we have a wonderful landlady,” Elsie says.
The couple had six children, Sandra de Koker; Linda de Jager; Isaac, Henry, and Alexander Nieuwouddt; and Glenda Kirton.
They have 16 grandchildren and 19 great-grandchildren, and, in October, they will be great-great-grandparents.
