Diamond wedding celebrants June and John Abrahamson have one regret in their happy lives.
They have not been able to trace two women who played a role in their getting together at a meeting that required June to formally introduce her schoolboy “blind date” to her headmistress.
They would like to thank them.
The setting was Pietermaritzburg Girls’ High School and the year was 1955.
“This tradition prevented any unwanted boy entering the school grounds on a Sunday afternoon,” John explained.
“The two girls who were instrumental in getting us to meet each other in the Girls’ High School grounds would remember the occasion well, as they watched their friend June, the shyest girl in the school, blushing profusely.”
The two girls and Cyril Sawyer, a boy from John’s school, Maritzburg College, were all involved in setting up a meeting between June and John. One was Dale White and the Abrahamsons do not know the name of the other.
“Sadly, contact with Maritzburg College revealed that Cyril Sawyer passed away in 2017,” said John.
June was at GHS for only one year.
“Neither of the two girls were aware of the long courtship that developed,” said John.
The Abrahamsons have long moved on from South Africa and are now so Australian they have a grandson, James O’Connor, in the Wallabies rugby team.
The Abrahamsons are waiting to see whether their grandson will be back with the Wallabies this weekend, playing against England, after being out of the team due to an injury.
The family have visited South Africa once, in 1990, since emigrating.
After 1955, John and June left their respective schools.
“June went to Technical College (in Pietermaritzburg) where she became head prefect and hockey captain, and I went to Weston Agricultural College (in Mooi River) to gather further knowledge about different farming practices.”
“We both came from farming backgrounds. My grandfather, Harold Abrahamson, was president of the South African Friesland Cattle Breeders Association and farmed at Mooi River,” said John.
“He was the MP for Drakensberg, undefeated for 23 years and a great friend of Jan Smuts.”
He went on to say that, coincidentally, he was at Treverton Preparatory School at Mooi River and June at Mooi River Government School during the early 1950s, where she won the Pietermaritzburg Interschools 100- and 180-yard races.
John worked on a farm in New Zealand after school and persuaded June’s parents to bring their family over.
“Both my parents and June’s parents came over on the same ship. We married a year later (after a seven-year courtship since the meeting at GHS) and both families settled in New Zealand.”
Another Bell-Abrahamson marriage followed.
“My younger brother Walter and June’s younger sister Iona also married, after seeing the perfect match. The four of us went into a farming joint venture and called our farm Inspan.
“We built the second largest rotary milking shed in New Zealand, invented the ‘Waikato Teat Cup Remover’ and proved two fit men could milk 300 cows an hour by using our labour-saving devices.”
John said the venture was a great success and in 1980 both families moved to the Gold Coast in Australia.
“Our only regret is that the two ladies are presently unaware of what they did for us in 1955, because of our inability to contact them to show our appreciation for the role they played.”
He said of his wife: “June is a very peaceable person who never gets angry. Maybe it is because she was born in Vrede (in the Free State), which means ‘peace’, on June 18, 1940, the day (British war leader Winston) Churchill made his ‘The Finest Hour’ speech, just over a month after he took over as prime minister at the head of an all-party coalition government.”
Would any readers perhaps know anything about the two 1955 schoolgirls, Dale White and her fellow matchmaker?
“Possibly some elderly lady who was in this 1955 GHS photograph may recognise it and come forward with valuable information,” said John.
He said he was certain the two ladies identified in the photo will remember the occasion of his meeting the headmistress at the school’s front gate, which was recently refurbished in commemoration of the school’s 2020 centenary.
The Abrahamsons can be contacted at [email protected]
The Independent on Saturday