Cobden couple celebrate 65 years of marriage

The Waare Hall near Port Campbell where the couple first danced together to a foxtrot is no longer there, but their love has stood the test of time.

The COVID-19 pandemic lockdown means their plan to go out to lunch to celebrate their sapphire anniversary won't happen - they will dine in instead. Dances were held regularly back in the 1950s, and the boys from Cobden would fill up a car and travel across the region to attend - and on the day they met Colin was one of them.

Vera calls theday Colin asked her to dance as her "lucky birthday".

The then 18-year-old Colin, who had been working away in Queensland, was home visiting family in Cobden when they first met.

Shortly after, Colin was called up for national service in Sydney.

"He always said he had the best time of his life. He had the most fun while he was in there," Vera said.

While not officially an item then, Vera held out hope he'd return home again.

She even turned down another potential suitor because she was waiting for Colin.

Colin returned home the following Christmas and, before they could meet up again, he was injured in a motorbike accident.

He had been on his way to another dance at Curdies River that Vera was at but he ended up having to spend three weeks in bed recovering.

"I didn't get to see him for quite a while," Vera said.

"I lived at the Curdie Vale post office with my family and I had a phone of course so I used to ring him up and talk to him while he was grounded."

It wasn't long after that the couple were officially an item, and on her 19th birthday he popped the question.

Vera had grown up living with her mother and two brothers at her grandparents' post office and took the bus into town to the tech school in Warrnambool.

She ended up having to leave her job in Warrnambool to care for her mum whose heart condition deteriorated.

After losing her mum, Vera found a job as a telephonist in Melbourne - something she had to pass an exam to do - and worked at the exchange until she got married at 21.

Colin worked at the Cobden Butter Factory - now Fonterra - driving tankers for 38 years until he retired. Together Vera and Colin have six children - two girls and four boys.

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