73 years ago, Geert Schutrup (92) said rudely to Johanna (90) after an evening in a café: “I just have to take you home, because it is dark on the way to your house.” The teenagers probably could not have foreseen that almost three quarters of a century later they would still be together and even celebrate their 70th wedding anniversary.
“The spark immediately flew that evening,” Johanna Schutrup-Speelman remembers. “And we never left each other after that.” She can still remember that their first meeting was just after the 1953 flood. “It was also raining terribly here at the time. My girlfriend once came to visit me in Annen completely soaked.”
On March 24, 1956, they said yes to each other and not much later they bought Geert’s parental home in Annen. “His father was ill at the time, so we moved in with him to care for him. After he died we bought the house,” Johanna explains.
And the couple still lives there seven decades later. Together they have three children, one of whom died about fourteen years ago after an illness.
Of course, Geert and Johanna assumed that something special would happen on their anniversary yesterday, but they were still pleasantly surprised by the festivities. Especially when Mayor Anno Wietze Hiemstra paid a visit. “We thought it was a really nice visit and the mayor is also a very nice man,” Johanna laughs.
Not only Geert, Johanna, the children and eight grandchildren celebrated the 70th wedding anniversary. The entire neighborhood, where the duo has lived for so long, joined in the celebration. “They hung out the flag for all of us and the whole street came to celebrate with us.”
The couple, who still live independently in their house in Eext, look back on a wonderful anniversary. “It was tiring, but we had a really nice day.”
Of course, the question remains: what is the secret behind a seventy-year marriage? Johanna: “You shouldn’t run away from everything and start talking to each other.”
