\u201cI\u2019m not!\u201d Robin insists. \u201cI used to climb through the window \u2013 it was always left open. There was a welcoming party!\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s this banter that has carried them through 67 years of unity, marrying at Whang\u0101rei\u2019s Anglican Church in 1962 and having two sons, sadly losing one aged 24.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe had two lovely boys but, unfortunately, we lost our David. Whenever I look at his photo, I get a tear,\u201d says Robin, 85, gazing across the room at a framed photo of a handsome man.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe is a big softie,\u201d confirms Yvonne, 87.<\/p>\n
But he\u2019s also a jokester.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was president of the local swimming club in Kaikohe and this lovely lady here was junior, intermediate and senior swimming champion and I asked her if she could come coach our children. We had a club of 50 people and there was only one person who couldn\u2019t swim and that was the president \u2013 me!<\/p>\n
\u201cI was the rock of the club.\u201d He chuckles, before adding, \u201cThat was a pun \u2013 it sunk.\u201d<\/p>\n
Robin worked in the printing and publishing industry and they lived in Kaikohe, then Wellsford, where they built a home. They have lived at Jane Mander for nine years and have one 18-year-old granddaughter in Wellington.<\/p>\n
As well as losing a child, health issues have been their biggest challenge, although Robin attributes Yvonne\u2019s good physical health to her swimming days.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe is a beautiful swimmer \u2013 when she does, there\u2019s hardly a ripple, it\u2019s beautiful to watch.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve always got on well,\u201d says Yvonne. \u201cWe\u2019ve lived 60-odd years of married bliss. All my girlfriends used to say, \u2018How do you do it?\u2019 because they always seemed to be fighting. But he\u2019s kind and generous and he never seems to argue. I can\u2019t ever get an argument out of him and I think I\u2019ve tried!\u201d<\/p>\n
Robin and Yvonne married in 1962.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s no point in that, it\u2019s a waste of time,\u201d adds Robin. \u201cBut thank you, dear, that\u2019s very kind of you.\u201d<\/p>\n
When asked if they acknowledge Valentine\u2019s Day, Robin replies, \u201cNo, every day is the same to us. I can\u2019t get downtown but, if I could, I\u2019d buy a present for my lovely wife. Then I\u2019d get one for me. And then I\u2019d go to the pub.\u201d<\/p>\n
Robin cites \u201call the abilities\u201d as key ingredients for a long-lasting relationship \u2013 \u201ccompatibility, stickability and humourability \u2013 that\u2019s a new word, I just made it up!\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s important to have a giggle and a laugh. Well, I go out there\u201d \u2013 he indicates beyond the door \u2013 \u201cand try and stir things up but no one listens. They don\u2019t take the bait!\u201d<\/p>\n
Rosetta and Don<\/p>\n
Rosetta and Don. Photo \/ Jodi Bryant<\/p>\n
When Don Davis and his mate spotted Rosetta at a wedding, they both fancied her and decided to let her choose. Last year, Don and Rosetta celebrated their 70th wedding anniversary.<\/p>\n
Don, 94, explains: \u201cWe were at a mutual friend\u2019s wedding and, afterwards, we went up to my mate\u2019s place and, after a few drinks, Colin said to me, \u2018You see that girl over there?\u2019 I said, \u2018Yes\u2019. He said, \u2018I\u2019m going to ask her to go out with me tonight\u2019. And I said, \u2018Oh, I was thinking the same thing\u2019. So, I said I\u2019d call her over and ask her who she\u2019d like to go out with.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe said she\u2019ll go with me.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought I said I\u2019ll take you both,\u201d laughs Rosetta, 92.<\/p>\n
There were no hard feelings. In fact, Colin was best man at their wedding two years later. The couple had four children but lost two and now have five grandchildren and one great-grandson. They have lived in Jane Mander for six years.<\/p>\n
They have gone through their adversities, losing two children and almost losing a third to meningitis, plus Rosetta\u2019s recent gruelling cancer journey. They believe open communication helps.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou need to be able to discuss matters without getting out of tune,\u201d says Rosetta. \u201cThere may be something that you don\u2019t go along with but it\u2019s better to discuss it and get over it.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnybody who says that they go through marriage without any discord, I don\u2019t know how that works. We talk it over, have a cup of coffee or you get out in the garden when you\u2019ve had enough of me,\u201d she says to Don, referring to his pastime of keeping immaculate gardens.<\/p>\n
Don and Rosetta have marked their 70th wedding anniversary.<\/p>\n
What would be the one thing that annoys them most about each other?<\/p>\n
\u201cDon\u2019s hard of hearing and sometimes I talk too much. But we get on really well. You\u2019ve got to have a sense of humour. Accept your personalities and if your personality clicks, well it clicks, doesn\u2019t it? I haven\u2019t kicked you out yet,\u201d she adds to Don.<\/p>\n
And what do they love about each other most?<\/p>\n
\u201cWe just enjoy each other\u2019s company and we like the same things,\u201d answers Don.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe used to play golf together,\u201d adds Rosetta. \u201cDon was a good golfer and he had me for the putting as I was a good putter. We\u2019d see some couples throwing the golf clubs and really going for it but we never did. We just accept each other as we are.\u201d<\/p>\n
The couple still acknowledge Valentine\u2019s Day with Don presenting Rosetta with flowers from his garden and they still sleep in the same bed.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe can still growl at me, like this morning, for pulling all the blankets off!\u201d<\/p>\n
Eddie and Issie<\/p>\n
Eddie and Issie. Photo \/ Jodi Bryant<\/p>\n
When 18-year-old Isabel spotted 23-year-old Eddie Taylor sitting on the deck of a cruise ship reading, she decided to walk past to get his attention. Several laps later, he still hadn\u2019t looked up so she approached.<\/p>\n
\u201cI said, \u2018What do I have to do to get you to notice me?!\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cDid you notice me?\u201d she asks him now 66 years later.<\/p>\n
\u201cWell, once I noticed you\u2019d done it a few times, I thought, \u2018Hullo, here\u2019s trouble\u2019,\u201d chuckles Eddie, 89.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was a very shy country boy,\u201d explains Issie, 84. \u201cI had been going out with another fellow and my parents didn\u2019t approve of him at all \u2013 thank goodness I didn\u2019t marry him \u2013 so they decided they\u2019d take me for a holiday to Australia and, on the cruise ship coming back, I spotted this good-looking blond reading a western and thought, \u2018He\u2019s very nice\u2019, so I walked up and down the deck backwards and forwards.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019d never come across a woman like that,\u201d says Eddie, who was returning from an OE with the boys and was having a quiet read. \u201cIssie was a city girl, and on the farm, it was cows rather than anything else.\u201d<\/p>\n
They swapped numbers before they disembarked and a short courtship followed for the Wellington couple. Issie began her nursing training and recalls climbing down the fire escape to go out with Eddie \u2013 \u201cIt was a very romantic time\u201d.<\/p>\n
She continues: \u201cWhen he took me to introduce me to his family, because he was such a shy boy, one of his sisters just stared at me the whole time with her mouth open because he\u2019d never had a girlfriend!\u201d<\/p>\n
They married on Issie\u2019s 19th birthday and had their first of four babies the following year. They now have nine grandchildren and four great-grandchildren. Living mostly in Auckland and Taup\u014d at one point, they sold up and lived in a campervan for nine years, travelling the country \u2013 testament to their companionship.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think our biggest challenge would have been different interests,\u201d says Eddie. \u201cBecause Issie is very much a people\u2019s person, whereas I was an animal\u2019s person.\u201d<\/p>\n
Eddie and Issie met 66 years ago.<\/p>\n
\u201cAlso, Eddie\u2019s very into sports, whereas I\u2019ve always been into musical theatre and, once the kids got older, we realised we didn\u2019t have many common interests so basically after years and years of him doing his things and me doing my thing, we decided this was a case of if you can\u2019t beat \u2018em, join \u2018em.\u201d<\/p>\n
Issie took up and grew a subsequent love for running and biking and soon found herself cycling around New Zealand and then France. Eddie started attending the theatre, although didn\u2019t comment when asked if he\u2019d too grown a love for it.<\/p>\n
Can they name anything that annoys them about each other?<\/p>\n
Eddie: \u201cI don\u2019t really have any, I\u2019m not surprised by anything.\u201d<\/p>\n
Issie: \u201cDon\u2019t you? Well, that\u2019s very sweet. At the moment, Eddie\u2019s taken up whistling and that drives me insane. But that sounds silly. There\u2019s nothing really that\u2019s annoyed me. We talk about everything, we\u2019re never short of words.\u201d<\/p>\n
When asked what they love the most they gaze fondly across at each other before Issie replies: \u201cHe\u2019s a real gentleman. He was very close to his mum and used to step in and help her. Everyone in the [Jane Mander] village is very fond of Eddie. He\u2019s just a nice person.\u201d<\/p>\n
Eddie: \u201cI think we both just enjoy each other\u2019s company. There\u2019s always the odd occasion where you get annoyed but it quickly disappears.\u201d<\/p>\n
They cite the key ingredients of a long-lasting relationship as love, sincerity, faith and trust \u2013 \u201cIf you haven\u2019t got trust, you haven\u2019t got anything\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cI\u2019m not!\u201d Robin insists. \u201cI used to climb through the window \u2013 it was always left open. There…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":282794,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[1665,13916,1975,31467,12448,5972,9060,71,20836,31466,157956,9851,99333,636,111,139,1067,69,52083,479,294,213,89271,165,15314,1961,25824,145398,23534],"class_list":["post-282793","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-advice","tag-asked","tag-at","tag-bryant","tag-couples","tag-day","tag-decades","tag-from","tag-jane","tag-jodi","tag-longlasting","tag-longtime","tag-mander","tag-marriage","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-northland","tag-nz","tag-reflect","tag-relationships","tag-retirement","tag-sports","tag-sustained","tag-their","tag-theyve","tag-this","tag-throughout","tag-valentines","tag-village"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/282793","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=282793"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/282793\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/282794"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=282793"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=282793"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=282793"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}