ABERDEEN NEWS - Aberdeen couple Basil and Mabel Joubert celebrate 60 years of marriage on Thursday 25 June and are still as much in love as ever.
When asked for his secret for such a long and happy marriage, Basil laughingly said that he had soon learned to keep quiet and do as he was told!
"Her father told me before we were married that she's very cheeky, and won't take no for an answer," he said. "I go and sit in the garage and bang on something with a hammer so that it sounds like I'm working, and keep out of her way," he added.
Mabel admitted that she likes to fight to get her way and that fighting spirit was evident when she first met Basil. "I was only 17, and engaged to someone else at the time, but as soon as I met Basil, I knew he was the one for me," she said. Only six days later, he moved into the spare room of her parents' house, and five weeks later, they were married.
The high points of the marriage include the birth of the couple's three sons, who were born in a house on the Modderfontein dynamite factory, where Basil worked. Sadly their eldest son, Sjeán, was killed in a motorbike accident five years ago at the age of 54, and their granddaughter Monique, Sjeán's daughter, died from lung cancer just a few months later. That was one of the lowest points in their lives.
Their son Norman moved to Australia about 15 years ago, and the baby of the family, Louis, lives in Amanzimtoti. Between the three sons, they have blessed Basil and Mabel with seven grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren so far.
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