SIXTY years on from walking down the aisle in St Matthew's Church in Cheltenham, Brian and Pamela Sexton can still laugh merrily about the tough start they had to married life.
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This remarkable couple, now retired in a lovely home in Flora Hill, were just 21 and 19, when they married on April 23, 1955.
Pamela’s father had absconded shortly before, leaving her mother to cope on her own, so when it came to the big day, everyone chipped in.
“Mum had nine brothers and sisters, so everyone provided something,” Pamela says.
“The ceremony was at 4pm, and friends had built a brand new home in Mentone so she kindly lent us the house for the reception.
“My grandmother paid for the cake!”
Pamela’s lovely dress, a three-quarter length froth of lace with a nipped waist, is still somewhere in her cupboards, adjusted and changed several times for various events.
“Everyone who borrowed it changed it,” Pamela says.
Brian is enjoying the results of eye surgery, and they are both active and optimistic.
“We got married on nothing,” Pamela says.
“For our honeymoon we went to Ballarat and stayed a week at the Buck’s Head Hotel, we enjoyed that.”
Pamela and Brian believe the tough start, and the struggle her mother had to get things back on track, strengthened their resolve to make happy lives.
After ten years in Laanecoorie, they bought a house on Eaglehawk Road they turned into Victoria Hill B&B, and Pamela was renowned for her costume-making, including a memorable Bendigo Les Miserables.
They both now sing in the Forever Young Choir.
“We had a big get-together for my 80th birthday just last year, Brian says, “and for our 50th anniversary too”.
“This time, it will be quieter, but there’ll be a dinner – don’t know where, they’ll surprise us.”