Don and Joan Horsey celebrated their 70th wedding anniversary on February 11.
Photo by
Megan Fisher
Joan and Don Horsey call February “our month”, with this February proving to be an extra special one as they celebrate 70 years of marriage.
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The Kialla couple celebrated their platinum wedding anniversary on Wednesday, February 11, before Don celebrates his 95th birthday on February 21 and Joan marks her 93rd birthday on February 23.
Joan and Don met at a dance at the Bamawm Extension hall in 1954.
It was a stroke of luck that they were both there.
While Joan lived in nearby Echuca, Don lived in the Melbourne suburb of Keysborough and was just staying in the area for a little while doing work servicing electrical motors on dairies in the region for the company he worked for.
“From then on we dated,” Joan said.
Joan worked at a supermarket in Echuca, and Don would often go into her work and talk to her in those early days.
Despite Don living in Melbourne and travelling a lot for work, the two dated for 12 months before getting engaged.
Another six months later — on February 11, 1956 — they were married at the Presbyterian Church in Echuca.
Don and Joan Horsey on their wedding day on February 11, 1956.
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Contributed
John was almost 25 years old, and Joan was almost 23.
The couple remember their wedding day as being a hot one — 40°C.
“The Melbourne relatives all complained about how hot it was,” Don said.
“The caterers were complaining because the jelly wouldn’t set,” Joan said.
After their wedding, Don made the move to Echuca and opened an electrical business, with the pair living behind the shop in their first years of married life.
“The boy always goes to where the girl lives,” Don said.
The couple had four children — Lane, Suzanne, Jillian and Arlene — and now have 10 grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.
Don and Joan Horsey celebrated their platinum wedding anniversary.
Photo by
Megan Fisher
The Horseys moved around a lot as Don changed jobs, first coming to Shepparton in 1959 where Don worked as a technician for Radio Australia.
Other jobs took them for stints in Swan Hill and Yallourn before spending 17 years in Bendigo.
In 1989 they moved back to Shepparton, but still spent years living around the country, as well as some stints overseas.
In 1996 and 1997 they lived on the island of Kosrae in Micronesia in two three-month stints while Don helped set up an electrical school, while from 2008 to 2011 they loaded up the car and caravan and travelled around cattle stations in outback Queensland, with Don teaching and Joan helping out in the house on the stations.
In 2013 they moved to a unit in Kialla Retirement Village and have lived there ever since.
The couple said the secret of such a long marriage was that they had never had a fight.
Don and Joan Horsey are still very much in love.
Photo by
Megan Fisher
“Like all marriages, we’ve had good things and bad things happen, but we’ve had more ups than downs,” Don said.
Joan said she enjoyed Don’s companionship, and they were “always together”.
“We’re happy in each other’s company,” Don said.
When asked if they still loved each other after 70 years of marriage, Joan and Don Horsey’s answer was the same and said quickly, emphatically and in unison — yes.
“I wouldn’t swap her,” Don said.
“I hope we’ve got more years to enjoy this married life.”
15°C