‘We made it’: couple celebrating 60th anniversary take it day by day
Waking up on their diamond anniversary, Jenny and Malcolm Reid had cause to celebrate.
“This morning we woke up and said, ‘we made it,’ Jenny said. “We’ve had a lovely 60 years, we’ve been best friends right through.”
The couple, both 80, were joined in their Nelson home on Thursday morning by family members to mark the occasion.
In pride of place on a side table were cards from King Charles and Queen Camilla, Nelson’s mayor and MP, and the Governor-General, who had sent three, to the family’s bemusement.
The couple met in hospital, where Jenny was working as a nurse and Malcolm had been admitted with peritonitis.
A month or so later, they bumped into each other again at a dance.
“I went and asked if I could have a dance because I recognised her,” Malcolm said.
After the dance, he walked Jenny home to the nurse’s quarters where she was living. She had a 10pm curfew, strictly enforced by the matron, Malcolm said.
“I was only allowed as far as the waiting room.”
They married almost two years later, in St Thomas’s Church in Motueka. It was January 11, 1964, and the couple were both 20.
“It’s all a bit of a haze, but it was a magnificent day,” Malcolm said.
“[Jenny] took the cake, she was a lovely bride.”
Sixty years later, the couple are looking back on a life well lived.
It’s been full of ups and downs: bringing up three children, juggling work, caring for elderly parents, and tackling illness.
Jenny’s heart problems mean that each day is precious.
“I’m literally day by day at the moment,” she said.
Jenny’s daughter, Joss Cumming, described her mum as stubborn.
“She’s been hanging on for [the anniversary].”
The couple’s life had been enriched by their sense of family and community, Cumming said.
They’ve always volunteered, sat on committees, pitched in at school and helped with sports coaching. “They’re family people,” she said. Today, about 60 people will gather to celebrate the couple’s anniversary and watch them renew their vows at Club Waimea.
“It’s a chance to show each other we still love each other and care deeply,” Malcolm said.