Star Weekly is looking back at the best stories of last year, and this is one of them.
A Sunbury couple celebrated 70 years of marriage earlier this month, with congratulations sent from King Charles, the Governor General and the Prime Minister.
Sunbury residents Joyce Wood, 91 and Douglas Wood, 93, celebrated their 70th wedding anniversary on Sunday, April 16, at Cornish Grange, surrounded by family and friends.
Mrs Wood, who met her husband while they were both migrating to Australia from the UK, said the secret to their long marriage is to go with the flow.
“Just to go with the flow and if arguments happen, you get over it and carry on,’ Ms Wood said.
“[It’s] nothing special, we’re all healthy and you know got on alright as a whole.”
Mr Wood agreed and said his advice to other couples is to know when to give in.
“Always submit to the wife,” Mr Wood said.
The couple, who have four children together, said they have been very fortunate throughout their life and their biggest highlights have been their children and time spent travelling.
“We were both migrants in 1951 [and travelled to Australia] on an ex-troop ship,” Ms Wood said.
“We met through a friend of [my] dad’s… we were both coming to Melbourne so [we] arranged to meet the following week [after we arrived].”
“We have a lot of highlights… we had children and travelled… We did quite a lot of cruises in the last years [before COVID-19].”
Their daughter Tracey Wisdom said her parents are “absolute opposites.”
“The secret is they’ve always had the ability to resolve things if they’ve had a disagreement,” Ms Wisdom said.
Zoe Moffatt
