60 happy years for Wellington Manor couple

“You’ve just got to give a lot and take a lot,” Mrs Warne says.

“We’ve always worked together no matter what: working in the garden, building our house, even mixing concrete – everything.”

The couple, who have been living at RetireAustralia’s Wellington Manor Retirement Village in Birkdale since 2003, first met while on holiday in Tugun, a popular vacation spot on the Gold Coast.

“I had been holidaying there ever since I was a little girl and Howard was volunteering with the Tugun lifesavers, so we had known of each other for quite a while,” Mrs Warne says.

“Then I won the Tugun Golden Girls competition, and that’s how we met.

“We started going out in 1954, got engaged in 1955 and were married the next year.” Sixty years on, the couple have been through much together and have three children, 11 grandchildren and four great-grandchildren with another on the way.

The Warnes count the birth of their first great-grandchild as one of the most special moments they have shared as a couple and both are particularly looking forward to meeting the newest addition to the family.

“Not many people get to see their great-grandkids, so we’re very lucky.”

In order to celebrate their Diamond anniversary, the couple will gather with their expansive family, in addition to many of their friends, for a special lunch at Cleveland’s Sunshine on the Bay seafood restaurant.

For Mr and Mrs Warne, it’s the perfect way to mark the milestone.

“We’ve had a very happy marriage,” Mrs Warne says.

We love one another just as much now as we did back then.”