Meant to be together
Absa man banked on middle name to find his braai beauty
IBELIEVE it was the hand of the Lord right from the beginning that brought her to me, exclaimed Bill Darlow as he looked into his wife’s eyes ahead celebrating their 60th wedding anniversary tomorrow.
Bill, 82, met Shirley Roebert, 82, back in 1950 when he was on a week’s holiday in East London. The couple, who had not met until then, attended a church youth braai and Darlow was “blown over” by Shirley’s beauty. “I had never seen a girl so beautiful before,” Bill said in an interview last week.
Before returning to his home town of Cradock, by sheer luck Bill had managed to get a look at the attendance register at the braai and was able to get to Shirley’s last name.
“I don’t know what came over me but I had made up that because my middle name is Warwick, she had to be staying in Warwick Road back in East London. And, I’ll have you know, that’s where they were when I found the Roeberts number in the phone book,” Bill said.
The former banker from Absa said he decided to write Shirley a letter and, although he had no hope – she wrote back.
“We dated for three years after the first letter and we were engaged for a year before getting married,” Shirley said.
Shirley, who worked as a cashier at Liverpool London Insurance Company in East London said she and Bill enjoyed doing the same things including going to church and church youth functions.
While they were dating, Bill was transferred to East London and was able to ask Shirley’s father for permission to marry his daughter.
“When he proposed, I’d been waiting for it and I loved him very much. I knew he was the one for me,” Shirley shared.
Bill said he didn’t only propose because he was in love but because “she was a Christian and loved the Lord and also showed forth her love by being the person she was.”
The couple were married on May 28 1955 at the Cambridge Baptist Church in East London and took the train to Queenstown for their honeymoon.
The Cradock Boys High School matriculant said he was grateful to his in-laws who welcomed him with open arms.
“My father died when I was still young and my mother died almost two years after we got married. My in-laws were great because in the earlier years of our marriage I wasn’t earning very much and they took me in and loved me,” Bill said.
Now living in Greenacres in Port Elizabeth, the couple moved to PE in 1987 when Bill was transferred by his firm.
Bill and Shirley have three children, Desiree, Sharon and a son Warwick who lives in Australia, plus four grandchildren.
The couple are members of the Trinity Baptist Church where Bill is an elder.
Shirley, who went to Cambridge High School back in East London, confessed that just like all other marriages, they have had their challenges.
“There have been a few mountains to climb but we are thankful to be together. We love each other and the Lord puts the love in us,” she said.