What began as a chance meeting between two 16-year-olds at a Melbourne school dance has grown into a lifetime together.
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Across 70 years of marriage, Ron and Jill Watson have weathered change side by side.
Despite the years that have passed, the memory of their first meeting remains crystal clear for Mr Watson.
“Saturday, the fifth of August, 1950,” he said.
“It was a special day that was. We were 16 then.”
Mrs Watson had attended a social night hosted by Melbourne Grammar School with a group of friends, and Mr Watson took an immediate liking to her.
Despite his interest, Mrs Watson said they were too young at the time and “there was living to be done”.
The pair dated on and off through their late teenage years, enduring “one or two breakups” along the way, before becoming engaged in early 1955.
Mrs Watson said the decision to get married was easy for her.
“It was nothing specific. We got on well. We enjoyed each other's company, and I was tickled pink at the thought of coming and living in the country,” she said.
“And Ron was bored. He thought he might as well get somebody from somewhere.”
The pair married the following year on May 7, 1956, at Melbourne’s Menzies Hotel, surrounded by 80 of their family members and friends.
After the wedding, they returned to Mr Watson’s family home, Pericoota Homestead, where they would spend the next 40 years or so building a life together on the land.
Mr Watson worked across his family’s citrus, sheep and cattle operations, while Mrs Watson quickly became part of the busy rhythm of the property.
The couple welcomed their first child, Sally, in 1957, followed by Prue, Angela, Richard, Katherine and Nigel, all born before 1967.
Their busiest years also brought one of the family’s greatest challenge when their youngest child, Nigel, was born with oesophageal fistula, a condition that left a gap in his oesophagus between his mouth and stomach.
“He went down to the children’s hospital when he was about three days old where he had this big operation, and they opened him up from the front and the back,” Mr Watson said.
“He went off in an ambulance by himself because (Jill) was still in hospital ... and he was down there for the best part of six months. It was awful.”
After many trips to the Royal Children’s Hospital in Melbourne, Nigel was eventually able to return home and made a full recovery.
Between farm work, children and personal commitments, there was little time left for anything else.
Far from feeling overwhelmed, Mrs Watson described motherhood as “wonderful” and cherishes the memories made on warm summer days.
“After school, particularly in summer, we’d pack the school up ... and we’d all journey to the sandbank and take an evening snack down with us and then let them swim,” she said.
“It was lovely.”
After leaving the homestead more than 20 years ago, the couple have gradually slowed down.
Now both aged 92, the Watsons say the secret to a long marriage is simple.
“Tolerance,” Mrs Watson said.
“And we like each other a bit too,” Mr Watson added.
After seven decades, it is the shared routines and companionship that have come to define their marriage.
Their story is not one of whirlwind romance or grand gestures, but one built on quietly choosing each other again and again, year after year.