In an era when some marriages can’t last 70 weeks, Batehaven’s Norman and Joy Miles are celebrating their 70th wedding anniversary.
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Scores of friends and relatives gathered at Marantha Lodge to cheer, clap and sing with them to mark seven decades of marriage.
Congratulatory messages were read out from Queen Elizabeth II, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and Governor General Peter Cosgrove.
The couple were delighted to have so many turn up.
“It is beyond belief to see all these beautiful people here,” she said.
So, what is the secret to a marriage that lasts that long?
“You fall in love at first sight, and then there is getting to know them right through, so you get to know who they really are,” Joy said.
“Then you never stop loving them.”
Norm was 25 and Joy 20 when they were married in western Sydney in 1946.
“Our mothers were friends,” Norm said.
Norm served with the Australian Army commandos during World War II, and was in the thick of the action in New Guinea and the Pacific Islands.
“I got shot three times so I had to come home,” he said.
The couple moved from Sydney to the Eurobodalla in 1983, but Joy has a connection to the area that goes back a long way.
Her grandfather lived at Nelligen and her father at Currowan Creek.