In a lovely circle-of-life kind of way, Win and Harold Wotherspoon this week celebrated their 70th wedding anniversary with a morning tea among friends at the church through which they met and in which they were married and where, years earlier, in which Win had been baptised.
St Columba's Uniting Church - or the Braddon Presbyterian Church as it was known in their day - features large in their story, one that seems more innocent, when there were fewer than 20,000 people living in Canberra and the main way they got around was by bicycle.
The pair was married at the church on Farrer Street in Braddon on February 7, 1953, after a nearly two-year engagement.
According to Harold they first met outside the church one Sunday as their fellowship group gathered to chat.
"There was a whole mob of us there and some of us lived in Kingston and used to ride our bikes home. Others used to walk home in groups. Win had to walk home by herself and I thought, 'This is no good'. So I walked home with her," he said.
Win lived in Ainslie. Harold lived in Kingston.
"It was a fair way for him to walk," she said, with a twinkle in her eye.
Win, 89, who was born in Queanbeyan and grew up in Ainslie, reckoned she noticed Harold a while before that first meeting.
"It was at a Christmas party for children at the Sunday school and another girl and I thought, 'There's a good-looking man there'. And it was funny because he ended up being Santa Claus," she said.
Harold, now 91, had moved to Canberra from Maclean, in northern NSW, in 1949, moving down by himself and living at the Kingston Guesthouse he gave himself three years in Canberra but ended up meeting Win and that was that.
Part of their courting involved riding their bikes along the Molonglo River before it was dammed to create Lake Burley Griffin. They were engaged on her 18th birthday and married when she was almost 20.
Harold worked as a mechanic, including at the CSIRO, and later "when his knees went", as a janitor in local schools.
The couple had four children - Elizabeth, Lynne, Robert and Alison. They also have six grandchildren and six great-grandchildren.
They are proud to make their 70th wedding anniversary.
"It's great," Win said. "There's been ups and downs as there always is but we're in an independent living village now and we need each other a lot more now."
Win reckons the secret to their long marriage is "probably a bit of give and take".
"Yes, I'd say so," Harold agreed.
"She was someone I felt comfortable with."
The couple in the Levande Ridgecrest retirement village in Page.
"We've been there 16 years now. We didn't think we'd live this long," Win said with a laugh.
Win's mum came from Scotland and her dad from the north of Ireland and together they started a new life in Canberra. Her dad used to maintain tennis courts in Manuka and Ainslie, among a lot of other things.
She says Canberra is so different to the town she knew in her younger years.
"It's grown and grown and grown and there's places I don't know now," she said.
The couple celebrated with a morning tea at St Columba's on Sunday and with lunch at the Canberra Yacht Club on their actual anniversary, on Tuesday. The celebrations continue on Saturday with family, their 70th wedding anniversary known as a platinum anniversary, the metal known for its adaptability and endurance.
