Love at the deli counter: Meet Mackay’s SES sweethearts

‘Being through Cyclone Debbie was surreal but also knowing my husband was there beside me was a good feeling’

You know someone is after more than just the groceries when they go to the same deli counter a few days in a row.

For Reid Murray, it was a lady named Bek he had met at a mutual friend’s birthday dinner at Sarina’s Tandara Motel in 2010.

His persistence worked for she gave him her number and the pair became Mr and Mrs Murray in a wedding ceremony at the Campwin Beach lookout two years later.

Reid and Bek Murray. Picture: Contributed

“We just clicked, we both liked the same interests,” Mrs Murray said.

“He proposed on my birthday.

“We went out to dinner with family but he got too shy so we went back home.

“I went to the kitchen; I came back and he said, ‘I was wondering if you wanted to marry me?’

“And I said, ‘Are you joking?’ because I was a bit shocked.”

Reid and Bek Murray at their wedding reception in 2012. Picture: Contributed

The couple soon started a family of their own and it was at the Sarina Markets while Bek was pregnant with their second child when they found another mutual interest.

“They had an SES stall there and my husband always wanted to do it,” Mrs Murray said.

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Reid signed up and Bek followed a year later.

He is now SES Sarina’s Group Leader and she is the Deputy Local Controller.

Mrs Murray said living and volunteering together could lead to butting of heads but it was all about compromise.

“We’re both happy to listen to each other … we value each others’ opinions,” Mrs Murray said.

“At the end of the day we love each other.

“You’ve always got to work at your marriage, it’s never going to be easy.”

And they proved what teamwork was capable of when they donned their SES gear during Cyclone Debbie in 2017.

“The experience was in short: long, wet, windy, and unpredictable,” Mrs Murray said.

“We ended up having a flash flood through Sarina through the Apex Park when we had the storm surge.

“We were doing anything from helping people sandbag to prevent flooding, to chainsaws — we were cutting trees off driveways to get people access to their house again.”

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But she said it was about uniting together, including with other police officers and firefighting crews.

“Being through Cyclone Debbie was surreal but also knowing my husband was there beside me was a good feeling” Mrs Murray said.

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