For 65 years, Merv and Pamela Cormick have lived in loving matrimony, which Pamela attributes to her manifestation.
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They met at a dance at the Shepparton Hall that Pamela’s future sister-in-law brought her to.
“We went to the dance there, and I was sitting down and this guy who doesn’t dance a step, wanted to come up and know my name and what I was doing and all that,” Pamela said.
“But then I went home and I said to my sister when I got home, I met a nice guy at the dance, I think I might marry him — and here we are this year.”
Their relationship wasn’t smooth sailing in the beginning, with Merv falling ill, catching the mumps, but that didn’t dissuade Pamela.
“I went to visit him and of course he had to just lay there and couldn’t do anything,” she said.
“He said, why do you bother coming round here? I’m sick.
“So I said well, if that’s the case, then I won’t bother to come again.”
It seems Merv couldn’t get his mind off Pamela, and he approached her in town.
“He finally comes up to me, and he said, ‘come on love, I want to keep going out with you’ and it just went on from there.”
They got married on December 5, 1959 in St Mary’s Church before going on a statewide trip to visit loved ones.
“We had our reception back at a friend’s house, and then we stopped at Seymour on our wedding night then to Melbourne and stayed with my grandparents for about a week,” Pamela said.
They moved around eight times before settling in Mooroopna, where they lived for 52 years.
But before they started dating, before they went to a dance, before Pamela was Mrs Cormick, Merv was a 15-year-old kid from the Northern Rivers town of Maclean, NSW.
A relation of his invited him to move to Victoria, a decision that would lead him to his forever home and forever wife.
“I said, ‘I'll have to ask my parents and I asked the parents and they said, well, if he looks after you, then that’d be all right,” Merv said.
He jumped straight into the workforce, going as far as to lie about his age to get employment.
“I said I was 18 and when I was 15,” he said.
“I got this job with big cases of fruit and I worked in the cool chambers, lifting the boxes and put them on the rollers.
“I used to go home at night and I’d fall asleep while having my tea.”
He moved through a few other jobs during his time, including a sugar-cane stint and time in a flour mill.
Pamela had two jobs throughout adulthood, first in a caring role, then in a canning role.
“I minded children for other people until my children were old enough to be left at home to look after themselves,” she said.
“I went to work at the cannery then and I used to work nine months of the year and worked over at SPC.”
Her time in the workforce came to a halt, just before a health scare of her own.
“The kids said to me, ‘it’s about time you retired’ — I was 60,” Pamela said.
“I was just starting to enjoy a bit of freedom and a bit of spare time, and then I got Hodgkin lymphoma.
She went through months of chemotherapy and medication, but came out the other side.
“I beat it, and I’m here today,” she said.
“We’ve had our ups and downs, but we’ve had a good time.”
That’s part of their secret to decades of loving marriage, the pair said.
“If we have an argument, we always make up after it,” Pamela said.
“Don’t give up, don’t throw in the towel.”
Being a couple in the literal sense was also on their list of advice.
“We do everything together, go most places together, and he’s a good provider,” Pamela said.
She had a specific example of Merv’s caring and providing nature to share.
“I wanted a sewing machine to make clothes for me and the kids, and he said we can’t afford it,” Pamela said.
“His friend heard this, and he said, I’ll give you the money, don't worry about owing it to me.
“So he got me the machine, but he didn’t like owing him the money so when he finished work on Friday, he went out to the orchard and worked the whole weekend, picking, and he made enough money in that weekend to pay him back for the sewing machine.
“I’ve still got it today.”
In their time together they have been across the country, and Merv has kept his playful spirit.
“We had about three weeks to ourselves in Yamba, and I was enjoying a swim out in the water and Merv yells out, ‘hey, Pam, you better have a look’,” Pamela said.
“And here are these fins going and of course, the first thing I thought about was sharks, so I raced out of that water.
“It was only dolphins and I just went, ‘I'm not swimming again’,” Pamela said, while Merv sat next to her chuckling as if it were happening in the moment.
There is only one thing that could match their support of each other — their support of the Mooroopna Cats football team.
Their sons joined the team 50 years ago and the pair have gone to as many games as possible ever since, even when their children left.
They sit in the same spot every game, with the same support they did half a century ago.
“I only missed two matches in the last season,” Pamela said.
“Hail or storm, I used to sit on the bench watching at Princess Park with an umbrella over my head.”
Pamela and Merv have three children, nine grandchildren and 15 great-grandchildren with one on the way, expected in March.
The pair will spend their anniversary enjoying dinner with family.
Cadet Journalist