70 years of love and care

Herbert and Margaret Hard in g’ s remarkable marriage

BEFORE they were married, Margaret and Herbert Harding would walk home from dance sin the city along Hobart’ s original floating bridge, her dancing shoes tucked under his arm. Married for 70 wonderful years this Wednesday, the 94-year-olds know a thing or two about longevity and mostly, they say, it comes down to caring for each other and team work. If one cooks, the other will do the dishes, or, as Herbert put sit, “Sometimes I’ ll was hand she’ ll wipe .”

While Herbert tends his bonsais, Margaret gets stuck into her knitting.

When their kids were young, Margaret would take them to school before work, while Herbert, who started at 2 am as a baker, would pick them up.

“The main thing is looking after one another, having a good GP, eating the food our parents used to eat and keeping active ,” Herbert said.

Their 70th was supposed to be a momentous family event, with their children, grandchildren and greatgrandchildren flying in from Sydney and Perth. Instead, they will enjoy a quiet lunch at the Belle rive Yacht Club, thinking back on the days when the Belvedere on Argy le St was the place to be. “The last ferry left at a quarter to midnight. So, if we wanted to stay for the last dance, we had to walk home across the floating bridge ,” Herbert said. The floating bridge spanned the River Der went from the 1940s until the Tasman Bridge was completed in 1964 and Herbert said it was quite a hike to get home to the Eastern Shore —not that they minded .“Margaret used to take a pair of walking shoes and hide the mina hedge ,” he said. The couple’ s son Mark, who lives in Sydney, shared his parents’ pragmatism over the closed border, but said the distance factor had caused significant anxiety for the family, particularly when Margaret had a health scare and ended up in hospital this year. “We just have to press on and hope that people in the community act sensibly so we can have some face-toface contact soon ,” he said.