Soul mates and best friends for life

By Kelly Yates
A NARRE Warren couple celebrated their 65th wedding anniversary last week.
Cliff and Dorothy Butcher, both 84-years-old, have lived in Narre Warren for 26 years and marked the special occasion by dining in Cranbourne’s Fratelli restaurant with about 28 members of their family.
The couple have four children, 11 grandchildren and 10 great grandchildren and say it is an expensive time over the Christmas holiday period.
“We find it very expensive when we buy all of the Christmas presents,” Mrs Butcher said.
“But they are all lovely and worth every penny.”
The couple met at a dance in the village of Varteg in Wales and said it was love at first sight.
“Cliff kept winking at me while we were at the dance, I knew then that he would be my one and only love,” she said.
They were later married in the Methodist chapel in the same village on 27 March in 1943 and migrated to Australia in 1965.
“I was nervous moving to Australia. During the first year here all I wanted to do was go back to Wales. But now I love it here,” she said.
Mrs Butcher said the key to a successful marriage was to give and take.
Not only are the couple soul mates, but they are best friends.
“We think being best friends helps as well,” she said.
The couple enjoy playing indoor bowls at the Hampton Park Senior Citizens club and usually play twice a week.
“We love bowling,” she said.
They also find pleasure in travelling.
“We go on yearly holidays to places such as Merimbula, Batemans Bay and Port Macquarie,” she said.
They both say they will be together until they die.
“We would both do anything for each other,” she said.
“Our advice to people would be to make a go of it and don’t rush out of it when it gets tough. You have to sort all the problems out.”