{"id":129893,"date":"2016-08-05T09:15:00","date_gmt":"2016-08-05T07:15:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/germistoncitynews.co.za\/129893\/childhood-sweethearts-celebrate-emerald-anniversary\/"},"modified":"2016-08-05T19:44:07","modified_gmt":"2016-08-05T17:44:07","slug":"childhood-sweethearts-celebrate-emerald-anniversary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/develop.citizen.co.za\/germiston-city-news\/news-headlines\/2016\/08\/05\/childhood-sweethearts-celebrate-emerald-anniversary\/","title":{"rendered":"Childhood sweethearts celebrate emerald anniversary"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Sam (76) and Marlene (75) Draper have walked a very long road together.<\/p>\n<p>The couple, who have lived in Delville since 1984, met when they had just entered their teenage years.<\/p><div class=\"stream-item stream-item-in-post stream-item-inline-post aligncenter\"><\/div>\n<p>Sam was caught stealing fruit from the tree in Marlene\u2019s back garden.<\/p>\n<p>A rocky start but they have been together ever since.<\/p><div class=\"stream-item stream-item-in-post stream-item-inline-post aligncenter\"><\/div>\n<p>\u201cMy mom taught my dad to speak English, he was born in Standerton and could only speak Afrikaans,\u201d said Mandy Pedro, the couple\u2019s daughter.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey were married in 1961 when they were 21 and celebrated their emerald wedding anniversary (55th) on Friday (August 5).\u201d<\/p>\n<p>They have three children, Kevin, Wayne and Mandy (all reside in Germiston) and three grandchildren Michael (studying journalism at Wits), Anthony (studying law at Varsity College) and Michlene (in matric at St Dominic\u2019s).<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_129894\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-129894\" style=\"width: 520px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/germistoncitynews.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/31\/2016\/08\/32GCNGENERALANNIMH2_11553.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-129894\" src=\"https:\/\/germistoncitynews.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/31\/2016\/08\/32GCNGENERALANNIMH2_11553-520x390.jpg\" alt=\"Marlene and Sam Draper in their younger days.\" width=\"520\" height=\"390\" srcset=\"https:\/\/dwu32cgxelq1c.cloudfront.net\/local_newspapers\/sites\/31\/2016\/08\/32GCNGENERALANNIMH2_11553-520x390.jpg 520w, https:\/\/dwu32cgxelq1c.cloudfront.net\/local_newspapers\/sites\/31\/2016\/08\/32GCNGENERALANNIMH2_11553-270x203.jpg 270w, https:\/\/dwu32cgxelq1c.cloudfront.net\/local_newspapers\/sites\/31\/2016\/08\/32GCNGENERALANNIMH2_11553.jpg 800w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 520px) 100vw, 520px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-129894\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Marlene and Sam Draper in their younger days.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Sam was involved for many years in the printing industry and worked for a gift shop franchise and Marlene owned gift shops in the franchise at Golden Walk Shopping Centre and East Rand Mall for many years.<\/p>\n<p>Both are now retired and love travelling when they can.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey are a really special couple and have set a wonderful example of what love, marriage and commitment are all about.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey have a wonderful sense of humour and always put our family first.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe are truly blessed to have such amazing parents and love them beyond measure,\u201d said Mandy.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Other articles you may be\u00a0 interested in:<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/germistoncitynews.co.za\/104382\/diamonds-are-forever\/\" target=\"_blank\">Diamonds are forever<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/germistoncitynews.co.za\/91502\/marriage-is-a-lifelong-commitment\/\" target=\"_blank\">\u2018Marriage is a lifelong commitment\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n<div class=\"stream-item stream-item-below-post-content\">\n<div class='tenancy_slot tenancy_slot_1 jannah_ad' style='display: none;' data-query-id='053337438c7d611a49938f9ded7e54e6'><\/div>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Children see their parents as a wonderful example of what love, marriage and commitment are all about.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1848,"featured_media":129896,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"hasGravity":false,"cxt_article_byline":"","cxt_disable_google_ads":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,2],"tags":[1652,1123,11921,979,969,4245,2734,1315],"class_list":["post-129893","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","category-news-headlines","tag-anniversary","tag-delville","tag-emerald-anniversary","tag-germiston","tag-germiston-city-news","tag-marriage","tag-melissa-hart","tag-wedding-anniversary"],"amp_enabled":true,"category_labels":{"Category":"News","SubCategory":"Local news"},"tag_labels":["anniversary","Delville","emerald anniversary","germiston","germiston city news","marriage","melissa hart","wedding anniversary"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/develop.citizen.co.za\/germiston-city-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129893","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/develop.citizen.co.za\/germiston-city-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/develop.citizen.co.za\/germiston-city-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/develop.citizen.co.za\/germiston-city-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1848"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/develop.citizen.co.za\/germiston-city-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=129893"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/develop.citizen.co.za\/germiston-city-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129893\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/develop.citizen.co.za\/germiston-city-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/129896"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/develop.citizen.co.za\/germiston-city-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=129893"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/develop.citizen.co.za\/germiston-city-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=129893"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/develop.citizen.co.za\/germiston-city-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=129893"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}