Love is whiskers on wheels

It wasn’t a love of their trusty mobility scooters that brought Dave Kennedy and Gwynith Earsman together.

It was the new fangled interweb. The Tokoroa twosome recently hooked up on an online dating site and the pair haven’t looked back since.

The couple love their scooters and the camaraderie of the Tokoroa Mobility Scooter Friends group.

‘‘I was looking around everywhere and couldn’t find anyone I liked but I love whiskers so I thought I would click on Dave,’’ Earsman, who is originally from Christchurch, laughed.

Their relationship may seem a little unconventional since they’re both in their mid 70s and neither has the best of health.

Kennedy has diabetes and Earsman has bad knees and three damaged discs in her spine - but they don’t let those things hold them back.

‘‘I was sitting with two of my [adult] granddaughters one day and one of them said ‘Grandad how come you are not like other grandads?’,’’ Kennedy said.

‘‘So I asked what she meant and she said ‘when we go down to the pub you sit and chat with all our friends like you are one of us whereas a lot of grandparents just sit at home in their armchairs watching television and just say hello or goodbye but you join in our conversations like you’re the same age’ - and I said ‘why not?’’’ Kennedy laughed.

‘‘When you get to 40, 50 or 60 you still think like a 26-year-old and both of us think we are younger than we are. OK we can’t do a lot of things, but there are still a lot of things we can do.’’

‘‘You have got to have the right attitude,’’ Earsman added.

They said having mobility scooters has helped them maintain that.

‘‘Before I got a scooter I couldn’t walk from here six houses away without leaning on a fence for a breather but now I get all over the place,’’ Earsman said.

‘‘People shouldn’t think they are too old just because they have a scooter as they open up a whole new world,’’ Kennedy said.

He said mobility scooters were becoming more popular in Tokoroa and he encouraged others to join the local group which meets for lunch at 11.30am at KK Bakery on the third Wednesday of each month.

‘‘Stay young and join the club,’’ he said.