Max and Sue celebrate 40 years of marriage
[caption id="attachment_160476" align="aligncenter" width="550"] 1976: Max and Sue Hoppe[/caption]
Ten weeks was all it took for Sue Bridgman and Max Hoppe to realise they did not want to spend life without each other and then to say “I do” in front of a magistrate in their homeland of Zimbabwe.
Decades down the line, that whirlwind romance has stood the test of time and the Hoppes, who live in Richmond Hill, are now celebrating their 40th wedding anniversary.
Married at the District Commissioner’s Office in Harare on July 2 1976, Max, 63, said he and Sue, 61, “instantly clicked” as they had much in common. Echoing Max’s sentiments, Sue said there was “absolutely no doubt in my mind that he was the man for me”.
The couple met while living next to each other in a block of flats in Harare. Sue and her flatmate used to have lots of noisy parties and one night decided that to stop the noise complaints against them, she would invite the neighbours to one of their parties.
“I heard their door open, Max had already gone inside and I asked his flat-mate if he would like to come to a party on Saturday night and he said yes. Saturday night came – it was also the same night I broke up with my boyfriend – I met Max and fast forward 10 weeks and we were married,” Sue said.
Sue said one of her first encounters was her seeing him lying flat on the floor, with speakers turned on, listening to music and a “beer jug with terrible Zimbabwean wine which tasted like vinegar”.
“We chatted until the early hours of the morning, found out we had so much in common because both had just been to Malawi, both took photos and both had the same camera and we started quoting Monty Python to each other,” she said.
Sue said talk of marriage came up only seven weeks later as Max was due to move away due to work and unless they were married, she would not be able to go with him.
“We were sitting by the river bank and Max just said well I think we should get married then. I called my mum and told her I’m going to marry Max and she screamed that she couldn’t afford a wedding to which I responded good, ’cause we don’t want one!”
Almost a year after Max and Sue got married, tragedy struck when Max’s father was murdered on their family farm, when sue was newly pregnant with their first child. It was during the war in Zimbabwe and not long after, there was an incident where a child and her caregiver was killed.
“That was when we realised we could not raise a child in that situation and six weeks after our daughter was born, we moved to South Africa,” said Sue.
With only a few Zimbabwe dollars to their name, the Hoppes along with new-born Keran travelled to Martizburg where Max’s sister had moved.
“We looked for a job for months and months and I was finally offered something in PE” said Max. “Having never lived in the Cape before, we were very much up for it. Luckily the property market was so low that we were able to convince our caretaker to give the first month rent free if we signed a one-year lease in Kabega Park, back in 1978.”
Today Karen Vollaire, 38, lives in the city and Ian, 36, a commercial pilot living in Dubai, both have two children of their own between the ages of six and 11.
Apart from raising their two children, Sue started pottery classes and began working as a ceramic artist. She later moved to painting and headed Epsac, now ArtEC, in Central.
Being with someone for four decades is not easy, but the fact that they love each other has sustained their relationship.
“We’re the best of friends, have a lot in common and we also go on photographic jaunts together even though we don’t do it so much anymore,” said Max. “We made our commitment and that’s it.”
The published authors of two books called The Climax Collection and Travels- Troubles with Koos made the decision to never go to bed angry and say their respect for each other also is a major aspects of their long and happy marriage.
[caption id="attachment_160479" align="aligncenter" width="550"] 2016: Max and Sue Hoppe[/caption]
