“Be there for each other. Right or wrong, work things out,” says Hallam woman Doris Agius when asked the secret to a successful marriage.
Her advice is worth listening to.
She and husband Charlie are celebrating 50 years since they tied the knot at St Joseph’s Catholic Church in Springvale, on Saturday 17 December 1966.
Charlie said the secret to a successful marriage was “just being good together”.
“We’ve just got along good together, always,” he said to their daughter Carrolyn Jenyns.
“Mum was the sort of person where if I mentioned wanting spaghetti, you could bet that mum would serve it for dinner the next day, or if I wanted chops then she would make sure we would have it … she’s always been that way.”
Doris and Charlie met at Sutex in Huntingdale.
Doris was 17 and made material on the warping machine. Charlie was 19 and worked as a beamer.
“Mum and dad did not get together until after dad left Sutex and dad remained friends with mum’s brother,” Carrolyn explained.
“Their first date was on Melbourne Cup Day where they went to Healesville, chaperoned.
“There were times when mum and dad each took the day off work so that they could see each other unchaperoned and on these days went to Mornington and Healesville.
“Mum said that she would always go home and tell her mother that she had spent the day with Charlie.”
They became engaged when aged 18 and 20, and married at 19 and 21.
They moved into a bungalow at James Street, Dandenong, at the back of Charlie’s parents’ property.
The home had a two-burner camping stove and an electric frypan, but they renovated the place and made it theirs.
The newlyweds lived in the bungalow for four and a half years, and welcomed their first child, Mary, during that time.
Doris and Charlie bought land in Hallam, saved money to build a house and moved in on 9 September 1971 – while Doris was in hospital having just given birth to second child, George.
They had another three children – David and twins Rodney and Carrolyn – and have seven grandchildren in Chloe, Mitchell, Elly, Hayden, James, Jakson and Nathaniel.
