Honeymoon never ends for devoted Tawa pair
Many couples experience a ‘‘sevenyear itch’’ – a rough patch after a few years of marriage.
Tawa couple Alf and Ruth Adams, married 70 years last week, turned the idea on its head – their rough patch hit days after the wedding, followed by a honeymoon period of six decades.
Mr and Mrs Adams, 95 and 93 respectively, celebrated their platinum wedding anniversary last Wednesday at Longview Home. An elegant tea party was held in their honour and on display were congratulatory cards from the Queen, the governor-general and Prime Minister John Key.
The couple’s love story is a true romance. Mrs Adams was a city girl, the daughter of bakers at Aro Street Bakery and in the printing business herself. Mr Adams was the son of Northland farmers.
They met at an Auckland dance while Mrs Adams was on holiday, and it was love at first sight.
‘‘I met Alf and he was nice, he was quiet and he was shy,’’ Mrs Adams says. ‘‘He wanted to write to me and he decided to come to Wellington to be near me.’’
Mr Adams got work on a farm in the Takapu Valley and cycled in to the big city for dates with his beloved.
World War II accelerated their romance.
‘‘War broke out so I said ‘I have got to do something’. I thought ‘ we’ll get married’,’’ Mr Adams says.
Days after the wedding he was shipped off to Trentham military camp, then spent nearly three years fighting in the Pacific.
‘‘It was awful,’’ Mrs Adams says. ‘‘ We got married and he went straight away. They said when the war started it would only last six months. It was six years.’’
Luckily there was a shortage of farmers in New Zealand so Mr Adams found his way back to her, and two sons, Brian and Keith, quickly followed.
‘‘The years have just skipped by,’’ Mrs Adams says. They are still a pair of lovebirds. ‘‘I have got the best wife in the world. I love her more every day,’’ Mr Adams says.