Love letter arrives 50 years late

Cape Town - 141022 - A letter dated 27 February 1964 was delivered more than 50 years later to the address at 12 Vernor Court, Marais Road, Sea Point, Cape Town. The letter is addressed to a Miss V. van Schoor and appears to have been written by her future partner whose name is not entirely legible. Pictured is Julius Du Toit, a resident of Vernor Court, with the letter. Reporter: Chelsea Geach Picture: David Ritchie

Cape Town - 141022 - A letter dated 27 February 1964 was delivered more than 50 years later to the address at 12 Vernor Court, Marais Road, Sea Point, Cape Town. The letter is addressed to a Miss V. van Schoor and appears to have been written by her future partner whose name is not entirely legible. Pictured is Julius Du Toit, a resident of Vernor Court, with the letter. Reporter: Chelsea Geach Picture: David Ritchie

Published Oct 23, 2014

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Cape Town - Did Val van Schoor ever marry her true love?

Fifty years ago, a suitor from Orkney in the old Transvaal wrote to her in Cape Town, saying he’d asked her parents for permission to marry her. But the letter was only delivered last week.

The post office strike has caused many stoppages in recent months, but a five-decade delay lends a whole new dimension to snail mail.

The letter arrived in the post box of Vernor Court flats in Sea Point, addressed to Miss Val van Schoor in apartment number 12. It was posted from Orkney, a gold mining town near Klerksdorp, now in North West, with a stamp costing 3c.

When the letter fell out of its envelope on to Julius du Toit’s floor last week, it was like opening a time capsule.

“I was surprised, until I opened it and looked at the date,” Du Toit said. “Then I was stunned.”

The moment he saw 1964, he was transported back to King William’s Town, where he taught music when he was 30.

 

“Straight away it flashed through my mind – there I was. That was the year I turned 30.”

Fifty years later, Du Toit’s life has wound through different places, teaching computer science and then English, in locations around the country.

Where the letter has been all these years, though, nobody knows.

 

The writer’s name is illegible, although it could be Merville, but his love for his bride-to-be is as clear as the day it was written.

He signs the letter: “Bye for now with deepest love, your future partner.”

“They wanted to announce their engagement,” Du Toit said. “He’s written to her parents. He waffles on for four pages.”

“Merville” begins the letter having anxiously awaited her “yes” to his proposal.

“The time is now 12.45am and I have just spent the last nerve-wracking hour composing a two page letter to your folks,” he writes. “I hope that it was not too formal and polite. I told them that when and if they give their consent… we can work out a suitable opportunity for me to get down(to Cape Town) and make our engagement official.”

The two lovers may even have been childhood sweethearts. On page two Merville says he is fond of his girlfriend’s parents, and happy they won’t have in-law problems: “Your dad has always been my hero ever since he gave me a mouth organ instead of socks for Christmas about 15 years back.”

Now, Du Toit wonders whether the suitor ever received a reply from his intended or if both partners were left wondering why the other didn’t write.

“One wonders whether the man is still alive,” he said.

“Maybe they did meet eventually.”

Cape Argus

* If anybody knows Val van Schoor or her 1960s suitor and what became of them, e-mail [email protected] or tweet @TheCapeArgus.

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