Reunited after 37 years. Photos: Denise Crawford

Velddrift residents Yvonne Stoutz (54) and John Nosworthy (58) were meant to be together. They are getting married on 27 May, after being apart for 37 years. It is nothing but “a miracle, a blessing from above,” as Yvonne says.

Yesteryear: Yvonne and John.

37 Years ago
They had a relationship 37 years ago, but then split up and went their separate ways. Four years ago they met again. By this time Yvonne was a widow and John divorced. They had come full circle.

Precious Path
Yvonne recalls meeting John, who was a civil engineering student at the time, the morning after her dad’s race horse, Precious Path, was stolen. Yvonne and her dad were walking about the farmlands around Philippi, where their farm was, searching for the broodmare, when they encountered John.

More in love than ever.

His mother kept her photos
Yvonne remembers how he helped them search for the mare, and how they found her behind a shack in Crossroads, and lead her all the way back. She was 17 at the time and John was 21. They embarked on a relationship that lasted more than a year, and then they broke up. During the nearly four decades that followed, John’s mother, Ann Nosworthy, who was a prominent impressionist painter, kept Yvonne’s photos.

She lived to see them reunited, and to see John follow in his father’s footsteps and become the commodore of the Port Owen yacht club. John has named his hobie cat after his mother, and he has given Yvonne her engagement ring. Some things are meant to be …