A dream come true
Last month my wife and I celebrated our 50th wedding anniversary. I have to share this story with you, given the role FAIRLADY played in getting our marriage off to a ‘storybook’ start.
I met Berna in 1964 on a blind date. We were students at Potchefstroom University (NWU). Despite our different backgrounds – I’m English and Berna’s Afrikaans – there was a spark. We got engaged in the winter of 1966. Berna graduated and took up a teaching post in Potchefstroom while I continued my studies. After completing my degree, I received a bursary to do research at the University of Cape Town. While this meant a separation, we agreed it was an opportunity of a lifetime. We pledged our love by setting our wedding date for June 1967.
I mentioned to my fellow students that I was looking for a flat for myself and my bride-to-be. In one of her letters, Berna had included an article from the March 1965 issue of FAIR- LADY about a young woman who lived in a mews cottage at the end of a cul-de-sac in Newlands. Berna wrote that it would be a dream come true if I could find something similar. A week later, I was notified that a student was looking for someone to take over her lease. I contacted her, and it turned out to be the very same cottage that had been in FAIRLADY! Losing no time, I negotiated a lease at R50 per month. The tenant was relocating overseas, so I bought most of her furniture at a bargain.
I kept this a secret from Berna, and told her that I’d found a room on the fourth floor of a building next to a factory in Salt River, and that we’d have to share the bathroom with three families. (The joke almost led to Berna ending our engagement!)
We got married in Potch in 1967, and our honeymoon of four days was spent travelling slowly back to Cape Town. We finally stopped in front of our Newlands cottage. I can still see my bride’s look of bewilderment when I carried her over the threshold, followed by euphoria when she realised this was to be our first home. Her dream had come true!
The two years that followed were among the best of our lives. At the end of 1968, it was with sadness that we left our cottage to move to Joburg, where I’d obtained a lecturer’s post at Wits. Whenever we visit Cape Town we do a pilgrimage to our little ‘love nest’. The last occasion, in 2016, was with our granddaughters. Dreams can come true – thank you, FAIRLADY! Chris Siebert Ed: Congratulations! And thank you for sharing this. We’re delighted to have played our part.