Golden couple celebrate
Sally and Tom Gilmore celebrated their golden wedding anniversary last week and Sally says she will never forget her nuptials.
SALLY Gilmore will never forget the day she married the love of her life.
“I was wearing my best friend’s bridal hat. I waltzed down the aisle and when I got to the end, Tom looked around and said to me ‘where did you get that funny hat’.
“I thought my friend was going to deck him one.”
But that’s just Tom, she says. He has always spoken his mind — a trait she has loved over five decades of marriage.
Sally and Mareeba Mayor Tom Gilmore celebrated their golden wedding anniversary last week with a barbecue with friends and family.
When she first spied Tom, he was just a handsome stranger who always seemed to be at the post office when she went to collect the mail.
The pair actually went to school together in Mareeba, but didn’t meet until both went to a dance in Cairns in 1965.
“And we just went from there,” Sally says. “He was extremely good looking.”
They married on August 24, 1968 at Mareeba’s Church of England after a whirlwind twoand-a-half month engagement.
Tom says it feels like “it was just yesterday”. “It’s amazing how quickly the time passes.”
“Ultimately there’s nothing left but memories, so you cher- ish those.” He credits Sally with raising their two daughters, Elisa and Catherine, while he worked long hours on the farm and then carved out a political career.
“When you’re choosing a life partner, somebody that you can work with and live with, raise children with . . . it’s a serious business,” he says.
“I suppose there’s a bit of luck involved, but I happen to be very lucky in that. I use her as an adviser even today and as a confidante because she’s got a view worthy of listening to.”
“Marriage is a partnership and you’ve got to be committed for it to work,” Sally says.
Tom recalls a photo of Sally, seven months pregnant and driving a combine harvester.
At the outset of their marriage they lived in a house with no floorboards in the kitchen.
“Sally had to walk on planks to get to the stove,” Tom says.
In a house of women, Tom says he learned very quickly to say “yes dear”. “It’s easier that way.” Daughter Elisa says it was wonderful to have such strong role models in her life.
“They bounce off each other really well. As a couple, they’ve really weathered a lot over 50 years . . . from farming to political life and raising two kids. They’ve been through a lot and done it together.”