They started married life living in a garage and now John and Daphne Densem are celebrating their sixtieth wedding anniversary.
For their first two years of married life they lived in that garage and had two babies before building their first house.
Today, the Hope couple, now in their 80s, are living in the fourth house they have built over the decades and have a section in Richmond where they are contemplating building again if they move into town.
It all began when Daphne headed to Nelson when she was 23 for a season picking apples and “met her Jonathon”, which was also the name of a popular apple at the time.
She stayed with a girl whose boyfriend knew John and before long the four of them were regularly going out at night and Daphne’s stint in Nelson became a life-long commitment.
After their wedding in Redwood’s Valley, they lived in John’s parents’ garage with a small kitchen area and a door added to access a bedroom in the house.
Garages were not insulated in those days and though it must have been cold, they do not remember it being too bad even when they had one baby girl and then another baby girl.
“We were young, and you can put up with a lot when you’re young,” John says.
Then they built a house in Brightwater and John remembers it cost the exact sum of three thousand, three hundred pounds, three shillings and sixpence.
John’s father had started Densem’s Hardware in Richmond, which the couple continued for another 20 years. It was in the days when every town had a hardware shop and it was the only place for people to buy the necessities for jobs around home.
“You knew everybody in Richmond, but Richmond was a lot smaller then,” John says.
In 1986 they sold the hardware shop and made the leap into horticulture, planting 12 acres (4.8ha) on the edge of Richmond in nashi pears.
Daphne says they were always busy and even now their large garden and lawn is immaculate. That has been a favourite pastime for them, as well as church activities over the years.
When it comes to reaching the milestone of 60 years of marriage, Daphne says “it’s just what we planned to do”.
“We got married for life. We’ve had our ups and downs like all families, but that doesn’t mean we were going to run away from it.
“We’ve had a happy life and love our family who all live here.”
The couple have two daughters, five grandchildren and four great-grandchildren all living in the area.
John says the real secret for a long, happy marriage is give and take.
“I think you have to have a lot of give and take. All take and no give doesn’t achieve much. You have disagreements of course, but you have to solve them and we worked together.”
John and Daphne celebrate their sixtieth wedding anniversary on 24 August.
