Marshalls usher in 60 years of unconditional love

LOVING Hillcrest couple, Leo and Peggy Marshall, recently celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary.

The entrance to their home is adorned with a symphony of plants and flowers and the living room has detailed landscape paintings on the walls, lending it a cosy feel.

The couple first met in the Eastern Cape. They were neighbours in a farming community, Leo was 13 and Peggy was eight years old.

“We grew up together but we were not an item,” said Peggy.

After receiving his matric at 18, Leo packed his bags and made the trek to Zimbabwe to seek fame and fortune.

Meanwhile, Peg enrolled into teachers training college in Grahamstown.

A year later Leo returned home during his leave andPeg and her family joined them for dinner.

“All of a sudden I noticed that Peg had lost her pigtails and was quite something else. I asked her to go with me to the Katberg Hotel, a popular place for dancing,” said Leo.

He recalled the very song that was playing the night he took her dancing and asked her to marry him: Peg of My Heart. “She said yes,” grinned Leo.

They parted ways and on Peg’s 21st birthday Leo visited again and they officially got engaged.

The couple said their courtship was done via correspondence for an entire year.

“There weren’t any cellphones back then so everything was hand-written,” he said.

They were married on 4 January in 1958 at the Anglican Church in the Village of Seymour.

For their honeymoon they used the last of Leo’s savings to spring for a hotel getaway at the Wilderness Hotel in the Southern Cape.

They squeezed all of their baggage into his Morris Minor and made their way back to Buluwayo, where Leo worked in marketing and sales at Nestle.

He was transferred to Zambia and the couple lived there for four years and welcomed their two sons, Wayne and Glenn, into the world.

After a few more transfers, taking the family to Zimbabwe, Johannesburg, Port Elizabeth and finally Durban, Leo entered retirement in 1990.

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Peggy retired from teaching when she moved down to Durban.

“I did miss it but I was just occupied in a different phase of life then,” she said.

The Marshalls said they have loved every moment of their 40 years in the Upper Highway community.

“When I retired in 1990, we both said we would do everything together that we could. From then on, we visited most of the game and nature reserves in South Africa and the neighbouring states,” said Leo.

Peggy said their life was overflowing with highlights but tears welled in her eyes as she described their second son’s passing.

“Only by the grace of God did we get through that.”

Both of them agreed their church, Christ Church in Hillcrest, has been their spiritual home and its congregants have become akin to their second family.

Leo said the strength of their marriage came from their unwavering faith and their deep love for one another.

“With the ups and downs, we have always communicated, we talk things through and if there has been an upset we have swallowed our pride and said sorry. We have never let the sun set being at odds with each other.”

They have five grandchildren and look forward to being great grandparents some day.

“We have so many positives in our lives,” said a smiling Peg.

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