By LACHLAN MOORHEAD
HOW can 60 years of marriage be distilled into one sentence?
In the case of Berwick couple Ian and Evelyn White, who will celebrate their 60th wedding anniversary on Thursday 11 February, Ian puts it simply.
“I must have been alright or we still wouldn’t be together,” Ian, 88, laughed.
Ian and Evelyn, who is 79, originally met many moons ago at the local dance held regularly at the Dandenong Town Hall.
The year was 1953 when they first met, but the wedding bells didn’t start ringing until three years later.
When Evelyn’s older sister Dot and Ian’s friend Fred decided to get married, the other two wanted to follow suit.
What eventuated was a novel idea – a double wedding.
“Dot and Fred decided to get married and my Dad said we were not allowed to get married until we were 21,” Evelyn said.
“But my sister and I decided for a double wedding, she was 21 and I was 19.
That was in 1956 at St James Church in Dandenong.
In the 60 years that followed there have been a plethora of wonderful memories. Those which top the list are the birth of Ian and Evelyn’s six children, 13 grandchildren and five great-grandchildren.
Safe to say family birthdays and celebrations – like the one that will be held on Sunday 14 February for Ian and Evelyn’s wedding anniversary – end up being very large affairs.
“Family’s one of the big things, even when everybody left home it was still busy,” Evelyn said.
“Even if we just have a birthday celebration there ends up being 35 of us!”
Ian and Evelyn both preach hard work, having been dedicated to their careers and family for all the years they’ve been married.
Ian, who built the house in Berwick where they live today, was still working until he turned 70.
In retirement he and Evelyn have had had more time to reflect on their loving family, and their six decades of marriage.
