60 years of love

KNYSNA NEWS - This week Michael and Dorothy Bowie celebrate 60 years together, having been united in holy matrimony on Saturday 23 December 1961.

The couple will be surrounded by loved ones and friends in a special ceremony at the Verenigende Gereformeerde Kerk in Hornlee. The ceremony will feature special speeches and sermons from local pastors, praise and worship, as well as performances of some religious songs and hymns.

Their journey

While Michael was born and bred in Knysna, Dorothy was born in Willowmore and moved to Knysna with her family while she was a teenager. It was this move that would see her meet her soulmate.

Both Michael and Dorothy are devout Christians and have been involved in the church from a very young age.

They met during church youth programmes, but things didn't exactly work out the moment they met.

"He tried to come over and start conversations with me, but I declined his advances at first as, while I was already adopted by the church, he still needed to be adopted," Dorothy says.

Michael stayed in Knysna while Dorothy went off to live in Cape Town for a few years.

She returned to find that Michael had not forgotten about her at all, but persisted in his attempts to court her. "I turned him down again and said he must first speak with my father. Thankfully he did and we then started dating, five years after he first tried to court me," Dorothy recalls.

Michael feels that the time taken to court Dorothy was well worth it. "I had to wait and be patient for quite some time but I am very, very happy that I was persistent," he says.

Two years after they started seeing each other, the couple got married in the then Dutch Reformed Church, now the Verenigende Gereformeerde Kerk. Dorothy was 23 and Michael 22.

Dorothy admits there were some tough times in the past 60 years, but these are mere drops in the ocean that is their marriage.

"The good times always outweighed the bad times, we still love each other endlessly," she says. Now 83 and 82 respectively, they have four children, 13 grandchildren and five great-grandchildren.

When it comes to the secret for a long and prosperous marriage, what do they think?

"It's all about respecting one another, and always being open with each other and communicating whatever issues there may be," Dorothy explains, and Michael echoes these sentiments. "Whenever something was wrong we were able to speak about it and work through it together. This is very important to us."