Sunday 20 June 2010




Can you imagine being engaged for 5 years - and separated by at least 5000 miles all that time?

That's what happened to my grandparents in the early 1900s. She in Ireland, he in Cradock, South Africa. Eventually my grandmother was allowed to take a Union Castle liner to South Africa to marry him. She was closely chaperoned, of course, and had to be ready to get off the boat in Cape Town and get married on the same day.
Voets toets! Presumably it wasn't considered wise to allow a young woman the chance to change her mind once she'd disembarked into the wilds of Africa!

So.. there she was, on the boat, with her wedding dress, and her marching orders.
Only problem was, she met someone else on board..

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