Cape Town - David and Jacky Levett on Thursday celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary and the Queen of England herself is putting her stamp on it.
The couple is originally from the UK but came to Cape Town over 40 years ago and they now live in Parklands. Sixty years ago, on 28 June 1958, when they were just 22 and 17 years old respectively, David and Jacky tied the knot in the United Kingdom.
David, a retired carpenter, and Jacky, who worked for Safmarine, have four children, aged 59, 58, 56 and 52, and who are still living in England. The couple also has eight grandchildren and six great-grandchildren.
David, 82, and Jacky, 77, say they miss their family dearly and pass the time by building 3D puzzles of buildings or ships. “I also bake for leisure and for sale,” adds Jacky. “We can spend hours and days helping one another do these 3D puzzles which you place together without using any glue.”
She says David was doing his national service for the army when they got married six decades ago. “Well, I was 15 years old when I met him and I married him when I was 17,” she says. “Marriage is a give and take, you cannot just take, you need to learn to give in marriage.”
David and Jacky Levett's wedding day in 1958.
Jacky and David intend on celebrating their anniversary on Saturday at a lekker breakfast with 30 relatives. “I will be baking a cake and we will be having something intimate with our (extended) family on Saturday,” explains Jacky.
The couple often travel to England to visit their children and are excited to be receiving the certificate from Queen Elizabeth. “The Queen gives you a certificate for 60 years of marriage and then thereafter 70 and even when you are 100 years old,” explains David.
“Our family made the arrangements in the UK, so we are just waiting for it.”