Desmond and Valerie Holland, of Hallam, have just celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary.Picture: Stewart Chambers. 19702
– Jade Lawton
ACCORDING to Desmond Holland, the secret to his long union with wife Valerie is his ‘docile’ nature.
Valerie and Desmond, of Hallam, have just celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary.
The couple met in Garfield, where 15-year-old Valerie waited for the school bus, and Des was driving cattle from one property to another.
“I hadn’t really met him, he had his eye on me, though,” Valerie said.
The couple was engaged in April 1957 and married at St Mary’s Roman Catholic in Dandenong on 21 June 1958.
They then drove their Volkswagen up to Surfers Paradise for a two-week honeymoon, before running a dairy farm in Vervale for three years.
After moving to a farm in Scoresby, the couple returned to a dairy farm in Pakenham South. In 1971, they moved in to their Hallam home where they remain today.
To celebrate the milestone, the couple had a party with children Mark, 49, Vicki, 47, and Bradley, 42, and their six grandchildren.
After 50 years of marriage, Valerie’s advice to newlyweds is simple.
“Just try hard and ride over the bumps. I think that’s about all you could say because there are a lot of bumps,” she said.
