Couple’s promise lasts 70 years
Love is what swept Keith and Bev Illingsworth off their feet on the dance floor in 1946.
Now they are living in the Waikato town of Cambridge and have been happily married for 70 years.
‘‘We met on the dance floor when I was 19 and he was 22,’’ said Bev, who turns 90 in May this year.
‘‘It was love at first sight and that was that.’’
They have travelled the world together and raised three children during their 70-year commitment to each other. They also have nine grandchildren and 17 greatgrandchildren.
Keith and Bev both came from broken families and promised they would never get divorced.
‘‘We’ve never thought about getting divorced, ever,’’ said Bev.
‘‘We always said that we would never put our children through that, a broken marriage.’’
And that promise has been kept.
They both agreed the secret to a long-lasting marriage was commitment to each other and going through ‘‘thick and thin’’ together.
Keith, now 92, believes younger generations still have the chance to be married for as long as he has been with Bev.
‘‘It’s possible, I think, because statistically the life expectancy for the younger generation is longer in most of the western countries,’’ he said.
After school, Keith joined the army, then the airforce and then took on post-war employment as a builder’s labourer.
After that, he completed a two year carpentry course but through all of that he found teaching was his passion.
The couple married at Balmoral’s Church of the Good Shepherd in Auckland on February 22, 1947.
After their honeymoon at Waipu Cove, they settled in Whangarei, where their first child, Jan, was born and from where Keith finally followed his dream of becoming a teacher.
They moved to Cambridge about 30 years ago when he became the principal of Cam- bridge Primary School for 13 and a half years.
His mother and brother were both teachers and his daughter became one as well.
One of the highlights of their marriage was watching their children grow and enjoying their achievements.
‘‘And our travels of course, we make good travel companions,’’ Bev said.
People smashing car windscreens in Leamington. Cafes with wall-to-wall flies. Cambridge fuel prices compared to other areas.
Out of control parties and no police to call on.
Start of Super Rugby when we are still looking to play cricket at the beach. Uncomfortable hot nights. Motorists who drive at 100k past the stationary school bus.
Riding your skateboard across the road in front of oncoming traffic from the gym on Pope Terrace. Send in your contributions to: mike.bain@fairfaxmedia.co.nz