“I’m going to marry that woman,” Angus Bain, aged 19, told his mate after walking home 16 and a half-year-old Gwenda from church in the neighbourhood of Kew East, Melbourne.
“There was this other girl, she said, are you going to walk me home Angus, and I said, no, he’s walking me home, and that’s how it started,” Gwenda said.
When they reached home another boy phoned to ask Gwenda out. “Angus picked up the phone and said no she’s not going with you, she’s going with me.
“That was it.”
Six years later Gwenda and Angus were married and 60 years later, last week, they celebrated their Diamond Anniversary.
As weddings go there were a few mix ups.
Their wedding was held at the Baptist Church at Mitcham. It should have been at the Church of Christ but they were rebuilding and it wasn’t finished.
The day coincided with grand final day for the AFL and Angus was manager-coach of the team.
“We raced over to the football, then raced over to the pub, then raced back to the church. All the boys came to the church,” Angus said.
But it all ended well with Gwenda’s mum organising the reception at her place.
Gwenda was one of 13 children and her mum was a real mum.
“She always had time for us,” she said. “You walked in the house, there was always something on the stove,” Angus said. “She was always such a busy person. That’s where I get it from,” Gwenda said.
After they got married Angus won 1000 pounds in a raffle, bought a block of land with the money, then borrowed 3000 pounds to build a house.
The hard working couple both had an array of jobs over the years.
Angus started off as a kid farming, then did brick laying, truck driving, factory work and finished up working for 15 years for textile manufacturers Fibremakers Australia until a back injury ended his career.
Gwenda worked at the Reserve Bank printing branch for about 14 years, in the note printing branch, a couple years at Cadbury the after the birth of their children started doing cleaning work. When Angus suffered health problems Gwenda continued to work.
Thirty-one years ago the couple sold their Melbourne home and followed their daughter to Noosa, building a house in a friendly street in Peregian Beach.
A six-week course with cake decorators at Woombye sent Glenda on a path of cake making that resulted not only in her being a much sought after cake maker but winning numerous awards for her cake entries at the Nambour show and other competitions.
So when asked for their secret to a long and happy marriage Gwenda said “a lot of it is give and take in a relationship, and don’t hold grudges.
“Go with the waves, up and down,” she said.
The couple have a daughter and son and four grandsons. Happy anniversary.
