What are the odds of two sets of friends celebrating their 65th wedding anniversaries on the same day?
On 5 December, 1959, John and Peggy Colin were married and, in another part of the country, Brian and Hilary Ford were married. About 10 years ago, the couples met at the Hope Community Church and have been friends ever since.
So, on their 65th wedding anniversary last week, the two Richmond couples with 130 years of marriage between them, celebrated with their friends at Arvida Waimea Plains retirement village and recalled how each couple met more than six decades ago.
John and Peggy met behind a gorse bush – it’s a story that has been told many times over the years.
“We were teenagers,” John remembers, “and we were supposed to be in bed, but there were groups running around. A guy was going around with a spotlight, trying to hunt up people who were hanging around and I dived behind a gorse bush. Then Peggy dived behind the same gorse bush!”
The rest, as they say, is history, and they lived a life of farming, had four children and now have 13 grandchildren and 24 great-grandchildren.
Meanwhile, Brian and Hilary met at the prompting of his uncle, who decided Hilary was the girl for Brian.
“My uncle said he knew a girl who would make a good mate for me,” Brian recalls.
“We met on Christmas Eve,” Hilary continues. “We were about 17 and I didn’t know who he was. We went to a 21st birthday party and he got in the car to drive me home.”
The couple ran a farm at Appleby, and though a car accident at 35 made Brian slow down on the farm, it didn’t change his course. Their family of five children has expanded to 15 grandchildren and “10-and-a-half” great grandchildren.
“We have a holiday together every year,” Hilary says. “We usually get about 30 or more of us.”
For Brian and Hilary, the secret to a long, happy marriage has been “patience and aiming in the right direction”, as well as a common faith.
“Learning to take the I M out of impatience!” Brian adds.
John and Peggy say their secret has been “to be loved and accepted by each other”.
