Valentine’s Day wasn’t really a thing when James and Mary Godden got married on February 14, sixty years ago.
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In fact Mrs Godden can recall her surprise when a shop assistant commented on the date while she was buying her headgear for the wedding.
Their reason for choosing the date was a little more prosaic. Mr Godden had a bye from cricket that weekend.
Read more: Celebrating 60 sparkling years of marriage
The pair were married in St Ambrose Catholic Church, Woodend.
By then Mr and Mrs Godden had known each other for five years, after meeting on the dance floor at the Woodend Fire Brigade hall.
Mrs Godden remembers a young Mr Godden as a quiet boy, who didn’t say an awful lot.
Mr Godden remembers Mrs Godden as a young woman with the right demeanor, and the right mindset.
He described her as a “pretty good looking” young woman.
"We both had the same thoughts, I think that was the thing,” Me Godden said.
The couple honeymooned in Melbourne, because Mr Godden wanted to watch the cricket.
Even after 60 years Mrs Godden is still not a huge sports fan, while Mr Godden loves it.
“I put up with it,” Mrs Godden joked.
“There’s a lot of banter” in the Godden’s marriage, according to daughter Kerri Drechsler.
Mrs Drechsler is one of four children. A son Peter, now sadly deceased, and daughters Brenda, Kerri and Valda. Their first child was born in the April of 1960. The pair now have nine grandchildren.
When they married Mr Godden worked at a research farm near Woodend, looking into anti-venoms.
The pair began life together in Mrs Godden’s uncle’s house, before moving to another Woodend home where they lived for 50 years.
About eight years ago they moved up to Bendigo.
Both believe the trick to a happy marriage is a bit of give and take. The believe their family has held the union together.
“We have those moments, but it doesn’t carry on for very long,” Mrs Godden said.
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