Sweethearts for 72 years

OMMITMENT and keeping things interesting are two ideas that local senior Laurence Clark has for young lovers who might be hoping for a long and happy marriage.

Laurence, 94, and his wife Mary, 91, are in their 72nd year of marriage and their life partnership has produced two children, five grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren.

“It was love at first sight,” Laurence said, recalling the weekend he spent in Adelaide and by chance attended a dance where he met and fell in love with Mary.

“I had joined the Air Force in 1941. While I was in the reserve I was working for a fire protection engineering company.

“My company had sent me to Port Pirie to measure up a power station for a fire protection system. I went across to Adelaide and I had my first ride in an aeroplane.

“I had an aunty there, Aunty Maud, and I went to see her and she said they were going to a dance on Saturday and would I like to come. I said I didn’t have a partner. She said, I’ll get you one.

“Mary lived at the back of her house. Her father had died when she was young and she was living with her mother’s sister. Aunty Maud used to take her under her wing. She came to the dance and that’s when we met.

“It was love at first sight. We had a few dances, went for a walk and came back.

“I had to go to Port Pirie on the Monday to fulfil my company’s requirements, went back to Adelaide and flew back to Sydney. We corresponded. I was on the Air Force reserve.

“I was called up in September ‘42 and after I’d done boot camp at Bradfield in Sydney for two months I was first posted to Narrandera. I had a week to get there, so I hitchhiked to Adelaide. The army took me under their wing and took me on the troop train and got me there.

“Mary and I had four days together which we spent getting to know each other. That was the last time I was able to see her. After graduating from the pilot’s course in Narrandera I was posted to England.

“We corresponded the whole time I was in England for two years.

I came home in August

‘45 and we got married on October 6, ‘45.

“It’s just one of those things. I remained loyal to her, she remained loyal to me in all that time.

Laurance went on to became a pilot for Qantas and flew with them for 37 years and, despite the frequent absences, they remained true to one another.

“I was chief pilot for Qantas for test flights and development. We had a lot of time apart, while I was flying. We were well practiced at behaving ourselves. I’d been to war and there was only one girl there to correspond with.

“You’ve got no wish to break that association. That’s what’s happened all our lives.

“Mary was very clever. She could crochet, knit, tapestry, she could do carpentry. She made a set of dining room chairs and things like that, right from the word jump. She could put her hand to anything and do it.

“She kept herself busy. She was also in cosmetics working in Sydney while I was away.

“Mary was looking after the kids while I was working. We never had hard times. She used to work for the Church and do things like that which kept her busy all the time.

“We used to travel a lot. I’d take her with me. We’ve been around

Right:

Laurence and Mary Clark, married for 72 years, pictured at RFBI Dubbo Masonic Retirement Village Above: Laurence and Mary Clark on their wedding day, October 6, 1945. Below: Laurence joined Qantas after the war as a pilot, flying all over the world. PHOTOS: SUPPLIED.

the world umpteen dozen times. We kept life interesting. That was the main thing, just to keep the interests and work at it.

“We’ve both had plenty of opportunities to break the link but we bit the bullet and stayed there. We had a strong family and that was one of the main reasons we kept going.

Being a pilot in the era of passenger flying certainly kept things interesting.

“I had a close association with Queen Elizabeth. I was their selected pilot for many of their trips around the world. We were never allowed to go through London. We were invited to St James Palace. That was a highlight about our life.

“That generation has passed of course. I never had the opportunity to fly Queen Elizabeth, but her mother, yes. She was a beautiful person. She was very caring, and she was a commoner in her own right, but she was very, very caring for everybody.

“When we went on trips around the world, there was a retinue of 22 people. I used to have to organise the flights and select the air crew to fly them. I flew a lot of them myself.

“We were flying 707s and 747s. I was the first Qantas pilot to fly a 747. We used to go to America quite a lot a do a lot of test flying with the Boeing pilots.

“We spent a lot of time in Seattle. Mary was well known in that area. We spent short term postings to America. I used to fly passenger flights from San Francisco to New York. Qantas used to do a link right through to London in the 1960s, back in the Pan Am days, which was a good old airline.

“I used to take my children with me occasionally. The company was very generous. I wasn’t a union member, I was a company pilot. As such, we got a lot of privileges,” Laurence said.

And a long and memorable married life. ■