A remarriage dreamed in heaven

It was a match dreamed in heaven when Audrey and Ron Duffield remarried each other on Saturday (October, 18)  — 28 years after they were divorced.

Audrey, 74, said although they had both been living in the same Port Elizabeth cottage for some years, they had lived totally separate lives and she had never given a thought to remarrying Ron, 81 — at least until three and a half weeks ago when she told God she was lonely and asked Him to send somebody across her path.

God responded: “Marry Ron,” said Audrey.

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“I said: ‘Oh please!’ And He [God] just said: ‘Marry Ron’. So, I said:  ‘Okay, we’ll talk later’. I was surprised by what God had said. Ron and I were just friends. That’s it.”

After marrying in Durban in 1972 the couple got divorced in PE  in 1986 and went their separate ways. But in 1994, after Ron had a stroke, Audrey’s son, Craig, asked her if Ron could come and live with them. She agreed and in 1998 she and Ron moved into a cottage she had built on the property after God led her to give the main house to Craig. One evening she and her niece and Ron and a friend of his were sitting in the cottage lounge. She asked Ron and his friend if they would not like to become Christians and to her surprise they said ‘Yes’.

“I was so shocked but I stood up and led them both to the Lord. And since then it’s been almost like it was planned by God and from then we became better friends and we could talk nicely to each other. We were friendly, but not close.”

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Dreams
But God had other ideas. At the time that the Lord told Audrey to marry Ron, Ron says he dreamed that he should pack up and head back to Durban since nothing much was happening in PE.  And then [in the dream] God said “Marry Audrey”. The dream ended with Ron asking if he really should marry Audrey, and God saying that he should.

Ron said the next day his friend, Louis Mackay, 90, told him that he had a dream in which God told him that Ron should renew his vows. 

“I went from there to take something to Audrey’s sister and she told me that she had a dream that Audrey and I must get together again.”

Audrey’s sister, Valerie Maree, then phoned Audrey and arranged for them all to go to a friend’s house for coffee.

Audrey said she was “in stitches” during the coffee date because she realised what was going on. 

“Ron was telling the friend what had happened and I was hearing this and hearing that. And so I said to him: ‘Why don’t you propose and get finished with it?’ “

She said she took off a ring she was wearing and gave it to Ron, who asked her if she would marry him and put the ring on her finger.

“Our friends were so excited about this happening in their house out of the blue. So then we we started planning the wedding.”

Craig, a tour operator and pastor, had the privilege of giving his mom away to his dad at the wedding in Westering Methodist Church. Audrey says the reception in the church hall was a joyous occasion with lots of laughter and lots of food.

Asked how it felt to be married again, Ron said: “On top of the world”.

Audrey  responded: “It feels good to be married again — and to the same guy! You don’t have to put on any act.”