Couple celebrate 65th wedding anniversary with family through glass wall
The daughters of a couple who have been married for 65 years were able to celebrate the milestone event with them despite being separated by a glass wall due to COVID-19 social distancing rules.
Manly
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Two daughters celebrated their parents’ 65th wedding anniversary with them despite being more than two metres apart and separated by a wall of glass at a northern beaches aged care home today.
Faye and Barry Bosward who married on April 23, 1955, were not expecting to mark the day in any way after being in lockdown at Arcare Warriewood for the past three weeks.
So, it came as a complete surprise to the couple, both 89, to find they were the centre of attention.
Daughters Julie Gilroy, 62, of St Ives, and Leanne Jelfs, 59, of Warriewood, had wanted a huge celebration with the couple’s large extended family, however, social distancing rules which were introduced by the government following the coronavirus outbreak put a stop to that.
But the aged care home said they would arrange a high tea for Mr and Mrs Bosward and the other residents and that they could be there also – but on the other side of the glass.
The sisters communicated with their parents via mobile phones on loudspeaker, apart from a brief moment when the doors were opened.
“It worked so well,” Mrs Gilroy said.
“Mum was in tears, she was so happy.
“We are on a high because the day was so lovely.
“We can’t thank the care home enough.”
Staff made a cake, put out tables on either side of the glass, decorated the area with balloons and fairy lights and children of one carer played some music which the residents could hear via a mobile phone on loudspeaker.
The couple’s daughters said their dad was a “quiet gentleman” who now had dementia but still told his wife every night that he loved her.
He enjoyed a career as a compositor in the printing industry.
Their mother who had been a dressmaker was the “stronger” character of the two.
They met at a rowers dance in Haberfield before moving into a home Mr Bosward built with his brothers in North Ryde.
When he needed professional care due to dementia last year, his wife told the family she didn’t want to be separated from him and decided to move into the home with him too.
Mrs Jelfs said her mum and dad’s personalities balanced each other out and they were family orientated.
Her favourite memory of is them dancing around the house when they were growing up.
“They loved to dance and I have memories of them doing the jitterbug in the kitchen,” she said.
“We grew up with lots of love and lots of family parties.”
