HOW A ‘LAST DANCE’ TURNED INTO A LIFETIME OF HAPPINESS
IT was with regret that Peter Lawrence farewelled his sweetheart outside the London dance hall knowing it was unlikely he’d ever see her again.
“We had our last dance and then as we were leaving I said to her, ‘Well, ta-ta I’m off to Australia’,” Peter said.
“I woke up the next morning and thought, ‘Well that was silly.’ So I arranged to meet her on the underground and I proposed.”
And so it was that the newly married Peter and Sylvia found themselves several months later on a seven week journey on board a ship as ten pound Poms.
Even though they were married, each had to walk up a separate gangplank and was placed in a single sex dormitory for the duration of the trip.
Although Peter busied himself replying to classifieds in six month old newspapers every time they stopped in a port, it was Sylvia who got employment first as a shop assistant in Melbourne.
Peter soon followed suit with the former Navy officer becoming a waiter.
Three daughters later and following a successful career for Peter as a psychologist working with troubled youth, the pair moved to their current home in Mudgeeraba in 1984.
Although their five grandchildren and two great grandchildren keep them busy, Peter has volunteered for the Red Cross for the past 28 years and is Southport branch president.
“I think our background living through the war made us more tolerant of life’s hardships. We didn’t expect anything to be given to us,” Peter, 92, said.
Sylvia, 91, said she had no regrets about their wonderful marriage.
“My dad gave me 100 pounds when I left because he said if I didn’t like it I could come back. We used the money as part of a house deposit instead.”