Fred Killick proposed to Margaret Ann Green on the night he introduced her to his family.
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For Fred it was love at first sight. It was also their first date.
And while Fred was convinced his soon-to-be wife was "the one", Margaret Ann took a little bit longer to convince.
Sixty years later and on the eve of the wedding anniversary, the couple are quite content with their lives, their family and where they're living.
The couple have a strong relationship that's built on honesty, support and not holding a grudge after an argument.
Margaret Ann's parents ran Greenway Roadhouse - a cafe on the Hume Highway in Central Victoria, not far from the army training camp at Puckapunyal.
It was a revolving door of Nashos either going in or out of the training facility.
Margaret Ann enjoyed dancing, socialising and spending time with her close-knit friends from around Avenel.
Then one day Fred stopped off as part of his truck driving job. In his words: I just fell in love with her.
"So I took her home the first night to meet my mum and brothers and I proposed to her," Fred said.
"But she looked at me and said: get real."
While Fred was convinced he was right, Margaret Ann was almost equally convinced he wasn't.
"It wasn't love at first sight for me," she admits. "He had a few things going against him - he couldn't dance - and I loved ballroom dancing - and he lived too far away.
"Anyway, in the finish, he just wore me down. I couldn't get rid of him, so I married him."
The couple were engaged on Margaret Ann's 18th birthday and married six months later.
They chose St Paul's Church Avenel for their wedding - the same church where the young bride was baptised and confirmed.
She also approached the same minister to conduct the service.
But married life was not all smooth sailing.
Victoria was in the midst of a credit squeeze brought on, says Margaret Ann, by the then Victorian premier Henry Bolte.
That saw the newly married couple forced to move from Avenel to Seymour and Wangaratta.
Fred took jobs where he could, eventually finding a steady income as a truck driver for his father in law.
In 1968 the couple took the giant step of moving to Sydney where Fred had landed a job as an interstate truck driver.
On their 12th wedding anniversary they purchased their first home at Toongabbie.
It was here that the couple's family was complete with youngest daughter Carol Ann joining her brothers and sister - Noel, Dale and Lorelle.
They would remain there for the next 27 years, raising their children and welcoming their newest additions to the family unit.
With Fred finding more security over his work, Margaret Ann took on various jobs.
Unfortunately, she was to fall seriously ill, eventually suffering a heart attack.
As a way of clearing their heads, the couple travelled to Dunbogan to visit some friends. It was 1998 and Fred had also decided it was time to retire.
"On the way home Fred asked if I'd like to move up here," Margaret Ann says.
"It was the best move we ever made. I was still quite ill and being out of Sydney was really good for me and Fred's health."
Fred stopped playing golf but took up bowls at the Lake Cathie Bowling Club.
Margaret Ann had an admittedly short life as a bowler but found her feet as the manager of the men's pennant teams.
She would eventually lay claim to being the first woman to win a men's pennant flag and taking the number 4s team to the state final.
Fred was forced to retire from bowls after suffering a stroke in 2010 - on the couple's 50th wedding anniversary.
The conversation turns to what makes a good marriage or partnership between two people.
Margaret Ann says it's about understanding that you don't always agree with each other.
"We like to have fun in our life. We bounce off each other really well," she said.
"My dad says I was born laughing and I've always been really happy with my life.
"But to be honest, it doesn't seem like 60 years.
"For the first 25 years Fred was always on the road working but I think the turning point was our 25th wedding anniversary.
"We decided to go to Tasmania and it was there that we really reconnected with each other.
"We have our arguments - and any couple you says that you don't is not being real - but we get over it really quickly."
Fred says that is one of the main traits that the couple have passed on to their children: family is important and family matters.
The couple's family includes their four children, eight grandchildren and six great grandchildren.
On Thursday (July 30) the Bonny Hills couple will notch up the significant milestone of 60 years' marriage with a lunch at the Lake Cathie Bowling Club following by dinner with some close friends.
On Saturday, the extended family will host a COVID-19-safe smorgasbord lunch.
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