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When Willie Myers decided to pop the question he knew exactly where to do it: a shooting range. It seemed like the perfect location given that he and his girlfriend, Johandri Pieterse, share a deep love of nature, hunting and the outdoors.
The 29-year-old admits he was sweating bullets on the day he drove Johandri to De Rust Private Nature Reserve in the Free State, where he is also a farm manager, because he was worried his proposal wouldn’t hit the target.
“He told me to get ready that morning and accompany him to the farm because he needed to do something at the shooting range,” Johandri, a construction owner, tells YOU.
The 28-year-old, who is two months pregnant, didn’t suspect a thing as they headed out one morning earlier this month.
“He just told me to get dressed and make sure I looked nice because there would also be people there.”
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A few weeks before the big day Willie had asked Johandri for her finger measurements but she thought nothing of it because he told her he needed this information so he could buy them matching hunting gloves.
“He is so sneaky!” she says with a chuckle.
It didn’t occur to her that after just seven months of being together he would pop the question. “When we arrived at the shooting field, he kept on encouraging me to shoot the 100 metres,” she recalls.
Eventually she gave in.
Sitting down to take aim, Johandri stared through the telescope of her 30-06 rifle and for the first time got a proper look at the target.
Attached to it was a piece of paper that read: “Will you marry me?” together with the words “yes” and “no”.
Taken by complete surprise, Johandri lowered her gun and turned to look at Willie who was now on bended knee beside her.
Unbeknown to her, Willie was recording the proposal and the footage shows her completely stunned, repeatedly asking: “What? You’re serious? No, you’re crazy! You’re really asking me?”
Looking back now, Johandri admits that it was one of the most unexpected moments of her life, one that she will cherish forever.
“I still can’t believe he asked to marry me. I just really didn’t anticipate that.”
Willie shared the recorded clip of Johandri’s heart-warming reaction on Facebook which has since received more than 50 000 shares. It’s thought to be one of the first shooting-themed proposals in the country.
Willie and Johandri first met two years ago in Welkom through a mutual friend, but it wasn’t until earlier this year that romance sparked between them.
The couple, who both share a great love for nature, outdoors and hunting, cannot wait to welcome their bundle of joy and hope to tie the knot in March next year.
“The day I walk down the aisle to meet him at the altar, I think the first thing I’m going to say is ‘We’re really doing this’,” Johandri says with a chuckle.
“I said yes to the love of my life and there’s proof of it!”
