He is known as the best grandfather and great-grandfather to 18 grandchildren and 17 great-grandchildren, and this year he celebrates his 90th birthday.
Nicolas Willis, from Manenberg, was born in Claremont one of 14 children. His father worked for the railway.
The family moved several times while Nicolas was still a boy and they eventually settled in Kensington, and Nicolas attended a Methodist school. He left school in Grade 6 and later went to work for a shoe factory in Woodstock at the age of 14.
He was 26 when he married Dolphina Willis. The couple have been together for 64 years.
Dolphina, 87, tells how she was just 18 when she first met Nicolas at a friend’s house in Kensington.
She was 23 when she married him. The couple had a small wedding reception and they stayed with her parents in Kensington.
Their first child, a girl, was born less than a year after the wedding, and three more children followed.
“Our secret was always to stick together and be satisfied with what we have,” says Dolphina. “The money was little, but we were satisfied. We stuck to our vows in sickness and health and for richer and poorer. We have wonderful children now who are very good to us.”
After a few months of marriage, the couple moved to their current home in Manenberg.
In their home, they have pictures displayed of the many road trips they have taken over the years.
“We would drive to Paarl to go shopping and make a day out of it,” says Nicolas.
At the age of 82, he had two strokes and his wife took care of him.
Their granddaughter,Michelle Arendse, 30, says her grandparents are the best anyone could wish for.
“They will do anything for us. I grew up in this house, and we could ask, and still ask, them for anything. My grandfather would drive our children to school every day and fetch them. When we couldn’t get what we wanted from our parents, we would ask them, and they would give us, and it’s the same case with our children.”
Asked what their secret ingredient to a 64-year-long marriage is, Nicolas says: “The one thing that I gave to my wife all these years was love.”
