Love on a bicycle made for two
A loose chain on a teenage telegraph girl’s bicycle led to a marriage that has so far lasted 70 years.
Bill, 92, and Joan Loader, 90, of New Plymouth celebrate their 70th wedding anniversary today while in their lockdown bubble, just a few blocks away from where they met.
The two met on a Westown street during World War II. Joan’s bicycle chain came off as she was on her rounds delivering telegrams. Bill, who was working as a butcher’s boy delivering meat by bicycle, stopped to help her.
‘‘He fixed it up. It left him with greasy hands when he had to carry on with his deliveries,’’ Joan said.
She was not quite 16 at the time, and remembers Bill attending her 16th birthday party, and then going to dances on Saturday nights. But some months later he left New Plymouth for a farm job in South Taranaki.
He then joined the army and was sent to Japan. She wrote to him for a while, then lost touch, until he returned home.
This time around, romance blossomed and they got engaged on Armistice Day, 1949, then married the following year on April 22, 1950.
They still live in the same Westown street where they bought their first home 67 years ago.
When they first moved there, there was a narrow gravel strip in the centre of the road for traffic, and wide grass berms where the children played cricket, Bill said.
He owned three different butchery-related businesses in New Plymouth before switching careers to work in the oil industry. A serious car accident ended his working life just before he turned 60, and he spent close to five months in hospital.
‘‘He’s lucky to still be here,’’ Joan said.
The couple have shared earlier marriage milestones with their family and friends, but are philosophical about forgoing a get-together for their platinum anniversary.
‘‘We weren’t going to have anything too serious. We had very nice celebrations with our 50th, 60th and 65th anniversaries,’’ Joan said.
They’ve already received official congratulations by way of cards and photographs from the Queen, the governorgeneral and the prime minister.
They don’t have a computer so they will be taking phone calls from family and friends today, and will have a family gathering to celebrate once the Covid-19 restrictions allow it.