When letters of congratulations from the King of England and several other dignitaries start arriving thick and fast, you know you’ve achieved something rare and special.
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In the Smiths’ case, that’s been seven decades of pure love.
Bob and Moira — or Moisie as she’s more widely known — met at a dance and were married on February 19, 1955, after two years of courting and a further two years after Bob’s marriage proposal.
Moisie said people didn’t rush things in those days; they needed a lengthy period to fill a glory box with the linen and household goods that followed as Christmas and birthday gifts post-engagement.
It was a sunny and windy afternoon in Chelsea, on Victoria’s south coast, the day they said ‘I do’ at the altar of St Joseph’s Church.
Moisie was fashionably 25 minutes late, wearing her beautiful embossed-fabric gown with pleated bodice and drop waistline, sporting a full skirt and long train.
She carried a pearl prayer book and a bouquet of gardenias and frangipanis; her face sheathed by a veil tiered to her fingertips.
Some 103 guests joined them for a two-course meal and dancing the morning after in Bonbeach before the newlyweds flew to Sydney to return to Melbourne aboard a cruise ship on their honeymoon.
The couple’s first home was a cottage on the beach at Chelsea, where they lived for two years before moving to a new estate in Aspendale in a home they extended three times over the next 21 years to accommodate their growing family.
And grow it did.
Bob and Moisie raised eight children, including four boys and four girls, with their seventh and eighth children being a surprise set of twins.
Between them, they mixed elements of the families from which they came to create theirs somewhere in the middle.
Bob was from a small family, but he is a twin, while Moisie’s contained no twins, but a plentiful 11 children.
The pair carted their tribe, whose ages spanned 18 years, around in a Volkswagen Kombi.
Next month, when family and friends come together to celebrate the platinum 70-year wedding milestone, a Kombi will form part of the memorabilia on display.
“That was the biggest part of our life, I think,” Bob said, recalling family camping holidays to Wilsons Promontory in the people mover for 13 seasons in a row.
The couple relocated to Kialla in 1980 with their family after Bob’s demanding job, which required him to travel back and forth overseas regularly, had taken its toll.
He took up a management position in the Goulburn Valley within the same company, but two years later he opted out.
Bob and Moira considered heading back to Melbourne, but after consulting with the kids, the consensus was that everyone wanted to stay.
In 1982, they bought Riverside Gardens Nursery and created the “Best Nursery in Victoria” for three consecutive years before that competition was suspended in 2011.
They ran the nursery for 33 years, before handing over the reins to three of their sons, who still run it today.
As we sit under the cool shade cloth in an immaculately landscaped outdoor area at Bob and Moisie’s welcoming home, a pair of birds chirping happily from a cage behind us and the soothing sound of water bubbling from a nearby fountain, not unlike the stunning grounds of the Kialla nursery itself, they tell me more about their love story.
“I loved her since I first met her,” Bob said.
“She had a happy smile and she was a pretty good dancer. She needed to be to dance with me.”
He then looked at his wife and said cheekily: “You’re the best wife I’ve ever had.”
Moisie said she loved Bob because he was always spoiled her.
“He brings me a cup of tea in bed every morning,” she said.
The pair agree that the ingredients list for a long and healthy marriage recipe is pretty short but quite specific.
“Just get along with each other. Have patience and tolerance,” Moisie said.
“We’ve always made a policy to never go to bed angry.”
Bob, who jokes that the main ingredient is, in fact, to possess a halo and “make sure she’s a good cook”, says family is most important.
“Have a lot of kids. The greatest thing in our marriage is the family; it always will be,” he said.
Bob also believes having so many kids has been key to staying fit and active into their twilight years.
Moisie, who dances, plays bowls (on the same team as Bob) and still frequents the gym, agreed.
“Just keep moving, don’t be sitting around in chairs,” she said.
From their eight children, they now have 20 grandchildren and 19 great-grandchildren for a solid 47-strong contribution to the population.
Daughter Toni Leader said her parents’ marriage epitomised a happy one.
“It was a good example for us as kids to see what a happy and supportive marriage was,” she said.
“It was a happy family unit. You didn’t have to go to friends’ houses to have fun; all the friends came to our house because that’s where the fun was.
“We didn’t grow up thinking life’s hard, we grew up thinking life’s fun.”
The pair will celebrate their anniversary with 90 friends and family on March 1 at The Woolshed on the grounds of Emerald Bank, a place Bob poetically helped bring to life in Lloyd Mawson’s team as part of the site’s redevelopment.
They will sit on a ‘bridal table’ with their eight children (and their partners) while an 11-piece old-time swing band gets people dancing.
Besides the Kombi, Moisie’s wedding dress — which was also worn by one of the couple’s daughters — will be displayed on a mannequin.
Their original three-tiered wedding fruit cake will be replicated in mud cake form by the couple’s granddaughter and grandson at Moama Bakery for guests to enjoy after a sit-down meal.
Just like platinum’s scarcity and remarkable corrosion resistance, it’s no wonder a marriage that lasts 70 years (and is still going strong) is considered as noble as the metal symbolic of the milestone itself.
Happy anniversary, Bob and Moisie.
Senior journalist