Lowveld couple celebrates seven decades of love

It is a love story that spans 70 years, and it all started when two friends in the early 1950s went horse riding on a farm in the Eastern Cape.

The lifelong lovebirds Ev (90) and Kathy Saayman (89), who have lived in the Lowveld for the past 12 years, recently celebrated their 70th wedding anniversary, and shared the story of how they met and how they had managed to stay in love for more than half a century.

“We met through Ev’s brother, Rupert, when he invited me over to their farm. He actually had a girlfriend at the time. We were all good friends,” said Kathy.

“I went away for about two years and when I got back, I heard that Rupert was engaged, so I phoned to congratulate them and ended up speaking to Ev. He then invited me back to the farm.”

Kathy said it was upon this visit to the farm that she and Ev noticed each other more and soon began courting.
“My family wanted to sell the farm and I was due to move to KwaZulu-Natal for work, and I wanted Kathy to come with me, so I asked her to marry me,” said Ev.

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The pair had a hotel wedding in the town of Cathcart in the Eastern Cape on August 23, 1952, when Kathy sang for her new husband and all of their guests.
“I was a singer when I was younger, and when I went to visit Ev on the farm, we would go horse riding and I would sing cowboy songs to him,” said Kathy.

“I loved her singing to me very much,” he said.

From KwaZulu-Natal, the couple moved back to East London, then to Zimbabwe, and they travelled through different provinces and parts of Africa before settling down in the Lowveld.

“We are both bush people, which is one of the reasons we chose to live in the Lowveld, and we do not want to leave,” said Kathy.

The pair said their marriage has lasted a lifetime due to the love and respect they have for each other.

“I fell in love with the person Kathy was, and I am in love with the person she is today,” said Ev.
“We both had the same sort of interests, even to this day. He showed me a lot of respect which was very important to me. We still laugh a lot together. We make each other laugh every single day,” said Kathy.

“We have had so many special moments, that we cannot pick out a favourite memory of ours. God just really blessed us. We have never had a lot of money, but the blessings we have received are just too many to count,” she said.

Ev and Kathy still hold hands when they watch TV and fall asleep every night holding hands.

“We never go to bed without kissing each other goodnight,” Kathy said.

One of the daughters of the couple, Eleanor Mosenthal, said her mother and father still have that undeniable spark. “My dad still gives my mom a cheeky smack on the bum every now and then,” she said.

The couple have three children, four grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.