Pair celebrates Vegas style
IT didn’t take Sharmayne Costa-Beber long to realise she wanted to know more about Terry Mitchell.
“I grew up in Babinda and Terry was from Mundoo, outside Innisfail. I first laid eyes on him when he was playing rugby league for Innisfail against Babinda and he scored a try,” Sharmayne says.
“I asked my girlfriend who he was, then set up a blind date for us to go out. We came to the drive-in in Cairns. We were both 18 and we just clicked.”
By the following year, on December 8, 1973, they were walking down the aisle at St Rita's Church in Babinda, with a reception at Babinda RSL.
“I was 19 and he was 20.”
Terry had been cane harvesting in Innisfail and Sharmayne worked at Babinda Hospital, so they opted for a working honeymoon.
“We moved to Shepparton, fruit picking for three months, then moved to Newman, a mining town in West Australia for three years, where both our children were born.”
When they returned, it was to Mena Creek near Innisfail, where Terry drove a harvester.
“After the cane season, we bought a milk/bread run in Gordonvale, so moved to Cairns in 1979.”
Later came a bobcat and truck business and, for the past 25 years or so, they have owned Cairns Mobile Brake Machining.
“In 2013, we celebrated our 40th wedding anniversary with a big party here with family and friends before flying to the United States for Christmas,” Sharmayne says.
“As my 60th birthday was less than a month later on January 4, 2014, we decided to renew our wedding vows in the Elvis chapel in Las Vegas on my actual 60th birthday.
“It was the best fun time for us both,” Sharmayne says.
Their 45th wedding anniversary, celebrated last Saturday, was a quieter affair.
“Terry is now 65 and I am 64, turning 65 in January. We have two children and three grandchildren.
“Our daughter Natasha and granddaughter Tiarni are both in the Christmas pantomime and our son, Cameron, is a FIFO worker, so we have booked into a resort at Palm Cove, just the two of us, which we’re both looking forward to.”